READY, FIRE, AIM: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Inflation

My parents taught me never to discuss my finances in public.

Not that they actually tried to teach me that. It’s simply that they flatly refused to talk about the family finances, with their children, or with their friends, or with anyone.

Family finances were a strictly private matter… as were religious beliefs, and sexual preferences.

I assume the mortgage company actually knew quite a bit about my parents’ finances, for obvious reasons. And so did the credit card companies. Ditto the IRS.

But I understood, from a very young age, not to talk about the amount of money in my piggy bank.

So I’m pondering this sensitive subject, as I prepare to write about my personal finances, in a publicly-available, online news magazine.

If you noticed the photo at the top of the page, it looks like our national debt was about $21 trillion dollars when that photo was taken.

My “Family Share” was $436,823.

My family consists of myself and my cat, Roscoe. That seems like a pretty big debt for a journalist and his cat, considering that we won’t receive any benefit from the debt, that I can foresee.

But it gets worse. Turns out, that was an old photo. Our national debt, according to the U.S. Treasury, is now more than $32 trillion.

Suggesting that Roscoe and I, as a family, now owe more than $665,000.

Roscoe seems unconcerned. In fact, I doubt he ever thinks about how far in debt he is. He’s a cavalier fellow; hardly ever worries about financial matters.

The year Donald Trump was elected, the national debt was $24 trillion. (According to the Treasury, if they can be trusted.) By the time Joe Biden took office, the total was $31 trillion.

So $7 trillion in additional debt, in four years. We never thought of President Trump as especially frugal, but… like, $7 trillion? No wonder Republicans are concerned.

And I thought my VISA cards were a problem… Ha!

Luckily, however, we have massive inflation.

Yes, the inflation has been hard on all of us. For instance, I’ve taken to drinking PBR. And Roscoe only gets canned food on the weekends. (In this particular case, I can tell he’s concerned. It affects him personally.)

But there’s one really great thing about inflation. In the case of the national debt, for example… and my family’s share thereof.

If we continue to have 6% inflation for the next decade, that will make everyone’s dollar worth less than half of what it’s worth right now. (Which, admittedly, isn’t much.)

But that also means the banks and investors and foreign governments, to which Roscoe and I owe $665,000, will be getting dollars that are worth half as much.

It’s almost like, Roscoe and I borrowed $665,000 and will have to pay back less than $332,000. And all completely legal.

Those guys at the Treasury and the Federal Reserve seem to know exactly what they are doing.

When you get too far in debt… Inflation to the rescue.

Louis Cannon

Underrated writer Louis Cannon grew up in the vast American West, although his ex-wife, given the slightest opportunity, will deny that he ever grew up at all.