The Real Meaning of Inflation (and How It Breaks Economies)

What is inflation—really? Not “prices going up,” but where new money enters first and who benefits from it. In this episode, I unpack why the popular price-index definition misleads, why the Cantillon Effect matters, and how the Bank of Japan helped engineer (and then burst) one of history’s great asset bubbles. Along the way: Mises, Ayn Rand’s point about definitions, George Reisman’s definition of inflation, and lessons for today’s policy regime. Chapters 00:00 Welcome from Jackson Hole & why definitions matter 02:46 Why the price-only definition fails (Rand & the “doctor” analogy) 06:41 Blame-shifting & Mises on “semantic confusion” 10:18 A better definition (Reisman) + the Cantillon primer 13:06 Japan’s 1980s bubble: the rise (window guidance, Nikkei) 20:18 How it was fueled (forced lending, property mania, spillovers) 30:43 The crash, “lost decades,” and social costs 35:29 Lessons for today (QE parallels) + Hazlitt’s warning