Our faith is weakening. That is, our faith that the government will be able to cause inflation, sooner or later. Let’s review our own narrative: deflation now, inflation later.

It’s very simple. Maybe too simple. After a half a century of credit expansion, we now have a credit contraction. In this sense, everything is happening as it should.

There was a crash and credit crunch at the end of last year. Then, the feds panicked. They fought back with monetary and fiscal stimulus. Rates were cut to nearly zero. The Fed flooded the system with cash and easy credit – buying up Wall Street’s bad investments…propping up bad banks…and guaranteeing trillions worth of bad debt. And the federal government passed a stimulus program that authorized more than $700 billion in spending.

Beginning on March 9th, we also got a big bounce in the world’s stock markets – just as we

The Markets Crash, Depression and Hyperinflation - The Triple Crown of Financial Catastrophes.

What a great time to be an economist!

Yesterday was another dull day in the markets. The Dow was steady. Oil rose a buck. Gold went up $3.

But there’s nothing dull about the economic news. Already, we’ve been able to see things we never thought we’d see. It’s as if our strange neighbours had invited friends, and even some animals, over for a night of fun – and left their curtains open.

So far, we’ve seen a stock market crash and what looks like the beginning of another depression, already marked by the biggest bailouts and nationalizations in history. We’re getting an eyeful! And with a little luck, we’ll probably see a bout of hyperinflation too. Crash, Depression, Hyperinflation – this is the Triple Crown of Financial Catastrophes!

It is remarkable enough that we have been able to witness a genuine