Central bankers and politicians love inflation, but they need “bag holders” to have faith in the value of the fiat currency IOUs they hold. The trick is to avoid suddenly destroying the ephemeral confidence in currencies by printing too much too fast.

Central bankers may also need to limit the options inflation wary citizens have for escaping.

They are both shifty and innovative when it comes to making sure the ill effects of perpetually devaluing currency are primarily borne by the citizenry.

Lying and trying to hide what they are doing to the currency has been tradition with politicians since Roman times. Nero began quietly reducing the silver content of the Denarius around 60 A.D.

Today central bankers and governments don’t have to bother with altering physical coins. Every currency can be quietly devalued electronically.

The financial central planners try to calm the herd with rigged inflation statistics designed to show the money losing purchasing power far more slowly than it actually is.

They use “hedonic adjustments,” “geometric weighting,” and many other ploys to arrive at a politically palatable inflation rate. Or, even more clever, they convince investors the best way to evaluate the strength of the money is simply to compare it with other fiat currencies.

That is how the U.S. dollar has earned its reputation for “strength” in recent years.

Headlines in the financial press broadcast the DXY index is rising. The dollar buys more euros and yen, which matters to practically no one except tourists. Meanwhile it buys far less of stuff that does matter -- food, housing, and most everything people need to live.

Another trick is for politicians and central bankers to simply print money under the guise of economic imperative.

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