> I simply don't think prices have to be *nominally* stable for us to be able to financially plan things. Sure we need to avoid situations where a beer is 5$ one year, 13$ the next, 1.15$ the year after that etc etc Exactly but I think the price swings need to be much lower than that. Current inflation in the single digits already seems too much to some people. > But that could only happen in two scenarios: > - either the money supply changes in crazy ways due to bad central bank planning, > - or the inputs to beer production go from being incredibly scarce to incredibly abundant due to natural disasters or incredibly positive changes in natural conditions, provided demand for beer stays the same of course. Both are possible but unlikely. The 3rd option is that there is just more production and consumption than before, or less. The inputs stay the same and the central bank money stays the same but people just work more, or less as individuals, or there is more automation, or the population grows or shrinks so the population as a whole works more less. That's the #1 cause for a changing economy. > Nothing makes me think that planning is any easier with a managed money supply. That's because nobody is planning for a generic future, we're all planning that specific goods and services we might need are going to have certain price ranges when we need them. Yes and we plan decades ahead e.g. when we're planning for retirement. > Let's say I'm building a next generation videogame console but I fail to anticipate that AI demand is going to make GPUs much more expensive. Should I complain about it to the central bank? What if I'm planning to increase the production of cereals but then the strait of Hormuz gets blockaded and fertilizers get so much more expensive, what then? Tech is unusual. We don't have a good way to plan ahead for that but we don't need to as our tech expenses are low compared to everyday stiff. The strait of Hormuz doesn't carry food, food comes from 10,000 individual suppliers spread evenly around the country and the world that makes planning much easier. > If anything a fixed money supply allows the price signal to be as clear as possible: prices change only due to demand, supply, and technology. I argue this would allow much better planning than nominal stability. Prices changing due to demand and supply can be planned against by central bank policy and that's what happens and it's good that way.

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Again, your whole premise is that nominally stable prices are absolutely necessary and I reject it. I think much more damage would be done trying to keep them nominally stable than by simply allowing to go where they may. Have prices for the things that you think matter been nominally stable in the last 20 years? Cars, houses, medical insurance, rent, travel? I don't see how this is a requirement for a well functioning economy. You're singling out tech saying it's an exception: why would that be the case? Is it because the rate of technical progress has been higher (however we measure it) in this sector than in other ones? So what? Should only sectors with stagnating productivity improvements count towards the nominal stability you think is so crucial?
> Again, your whole premise is that nominally stable prices are absolutely necessary and I reject it. I think much more damage would be done trying to keep them nominally stable than by simply allowing to go where they may. Have prices for the things that you think matter been nominally stable in the last 20 years? Cars, houses, medical insurance, rent, travel? They've been getting more expensive by a few percent a year. It would be better if they didn't change at all but it's the best we can do. The change so far has been small and predictable. Predictable change is the next best thing after no changes. > I don't see how this is a requirement for a well functioning economy. So you can plan ahead financially. In order to take up a loan you need to estimate whether your future income -- i.e. the prices for the goods and services you are selling -- will be high enough to pay it off. If you're the lender you're on the other side of the equation. Same for saving for retirement. > You're singling out tech saying it's an exception: why would that be the case? Is it because the rate of technical progress has been higher (however we measure it) in this sector than in other ones? So what? Should only sectors with stagnating productivity improvements count towards the nominal stability you think is so crucial? Yes correct the rate of progress has made it unpredictable and that works against maintaining price stability. Every sector should count towards that but if the ones that don't make up a smallish portion of the economy then that's not too bad.