clark,

Hell yes, me to! I read North regularly.

But, on this one I had a sense that he is incorrect. Let's question his argument.

It centers on the assumption that the "75-year obligations of the federal government to support old people through Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and federal pensions." won't be discharged through hyperinflation.

Is it really so? Let me give you an example. Hyperinflation in Russia lasted very short time. Results? If you were expecting, say, 1000 a month in those obligations, then in new money (post hyperinflationary currency) you now expect say, 3000 a month. However, because of change in value, this new amount is only enough to purchase one tenth of what the old amount could purchase! Did the hyperinflation solve the government problem? I think so!
Effectively, after the dust settled, it allowed the government to pay out only a tenth of what it had to pay out, and all without an embarrassing default.

The reason it works that way, is because there are two ways to determine the inflation, the official index and the true calculation. Gold, if not messed with, is the only way to know for real the level of real inflation. The government index is only there to make a convenience for the government, it reflects nothing.

So, very much in the same way, here in US, we will continue to experience the extreme inflation, until we go through hyperinflation. The government index will be used to recalculate the obligations to the seniors, not gold.
You can bet the farm, that the government index will underestimate the real inflation at least one to ten.

If the seniors rise up and demand the gold index to be used, then the government will say, ok, if this is what you want, we will then recalculate the debts of your children using the gold index as well, and that would be the end of it. Because many who understand the reason the government always inflates, will take out maximum debts and they will owe pennies on that after the introduction of the new currency, and all those folks will support the government in using the official index. Besides, only may-be one in a thousand of seniors will actually be able to understand how it happenned. To most, this will simply be "an inexplicable rise in prices", i.e. something that the new economy did to them, not the government. People are just too stupid. So, they won't get the gold index recalculation, and likely, won't even understand that this is what they would need.

Gary North sometimes strikes me as if he believed in the internal goodness of the government. It is as if he believed that the government actually screws up, instead of planning it that way. May-be he really does.

What do you believe? If there was a magic button, which would make all seniors happy and rich, if struck, do you believe the government would hit it?

This is a more complete picture of Iranian inflation;
Click to view link

Excellent commentary Mish!

Obviously Iranians are fleeing the rial in favor of the dollar, hyperinflation in that economy, in terms of the dollar.

Due to sanctions, Iran will have to choose joining the system of world central banking which includes shutting down the oil bourse (lose the economic war) or wager in a military war. Some choice.

For the dollar to hyperinflate uncontrolablly, as opposed to a controlled inflation, there will have to be something else the US economy flees to. Gold? And before that happens, could we expect warfare as well, domestically? Is there a police state that is interested in tracking our every move and purchase?

This bit, "Those suggesting hyperinflation will hit the US are barking up the wrong tree." caught my eye too, mava.

This from Gary North has been banging around my brain as of late:

This is a very good reason to prepare for a catastrophe, if we are lucky, or possibly several:

(1) mass inflation, stabilization, deflation, depression, and government default,


or (2) hyperinflation followed by a default. Take your pick.

[He continues... ]

This is why the policy of hyperinflation is useless in dealing with the 75-year obligations of the federal government to support old people through Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and federal pensions. These obligations are inter-generational. Hyperinflation lasts for months, not decades. When the government ends its policy of hyperinflation, it finds that it is still saddled with these obligations.

...

This means that the government will default. This is 100% guaranteed.


Click to view link

So, maybe "other" goals are the target? Maybe hyperinflation won't fix things, but the global mafia thinks hyperinflation will help them to achieve some other goal?

A sort of, burn the house down to kill the termites?

The deflationists stick to THEIR guns. The inflationists stick to THEIR guns.
It makes for VERY interesting discourse.
Once again, we battle semantics. FOFOA has claimed that GOV prints to "save" debt.
Currently, the banks hold somewhere around $ 650B,,,$ 1.2 quadrillion, much of which is going sour. GOV prints to buy up that debt. Sounds about right.
Click to view link
FOFOA also said that we ARE in high inflation if you use gold for the numerator.
Since all the major currencies are printing in unison, he may be right.

Zero Hedge has a good article on inflation;
It uses a NOT rigorous definition of inflation. If you keep that in mind, it isn't difficult to follow.
Click to view link

Info-wars has a good article showing that the results of the FED lowering ALL interest rates is crashing everyone's income from fixed (non)income.
Click to view link

We are definitely in "faux"deflation. GOV has printed up $$$ trillions to offset debt vaporization. BUT, money velocity is falling as fast as money printing is rising. Repost
Click to view link
I say "faux" because low velocity is offsetting high printing. We are definitely in deflation when you consider that the money supply includes credit. Credit
is in short supply. Same for paper currency. Nobody seems to have much of it.

When everything is relative, Gresham's Law may come into play. Good currency goes into hiding. Paper money may be made to disappear so that GOV can track commerce better.
There is a PBS documentary claiming that the crash was not at all an accident.
Click to view link
Reportedly, the Euro crash is to follow the Russian script;
Click to view link

The Russian crash has some interesting twists and turns;
"The timing of the event was driven by another hidden motive, to eliminate payout of the infamous $240 billion in Russian Bonds that were due the next day after 9/11. Those bonds were used to fund the failed attempt for Yeltsin to take control of Russia, to purchase Russian infrastructure, to buy their Treasury, and to pay off the Russian Military"
Click to view link

This may seem a bit far-fetched but, why in hell did "for the first time in USFed history, the bonds were cleared anonymously by the central bank under a suspension of securities clearance rules"
Which bonds?
$240 billion dollars in securities covertly created in September 1991 to fund a covert economic war against the Soviet Union,"
Click to view link
It was just coincidence that the FED was operating remotely that particular day.

So, Yeltsin had his hand in the pot in 1991. Russia crashed. Someone forgot to tell LTCM what the plan was. Everybody but Bear Stearns chipped in to offset the LTCM collapse. When things went bad here, Bear Stearns got the chopping block.
Apparently, we're doing to Iran what we did to several other countries.
I suspect that they will redirect all their imports to non-dollar countries and regain stability. They can vacuum up all the dollars and send them where they won't cause any problems.

"Those suggesting hyperinflation will hit the US are barking up the wrong tree."

Lol... Mish sticks to his guns no matter what. When it actually hits the US,.. I am guessing he is going to say it was all "political".

Mish, in the US it will be triggered by an eventual realignment of prices, that were politically held immovable for a very long period of time. After this, you'd be able to add to your list of reasons for historical hyperinflations this one: "... and in America, it was triggered by a sudden intrusion of reality, which made a life on borrowed wealth impossible, clearly a political event".

Hyperinflation is an entirely monetary event. It is the act of creating new claims on goods faster than the public gets used to it. But who has the reins over the monetary issues?

Saying that there will be no hyperinflation in US because it is triggered by politicians is forecasting nothing. Because you will always be able to say, "but the politicians screw it up", as though gold money ever screwed up all by itself, without any help of politicians.

Obviously, us dollar isn't the only thing we can print in abundance...

The Germans during WWII had a saying :

'Enjoy the war, the peace will be terrible'

just ask the Iraqis or Afghans if they agree with that assement, even if there is no war waged against Iran, but the Government topples it'll be a free for all for Global Corporations who will just fleece the populous.