The energetic, great and brilliant Elon Musk recently took to X (or Twitter) in order to explain what causes inflation. It seems even Musk can be wrong on occasion. He disappointingly asserted that inflation “is caused by the Federal government spending more than it earns, because they just print more money to make up the difference.”
Sadly, but not surprisingly, neo-Austrian economists ever convinced the U.S. is in a constant state of hyperinflation gleefully embraced Musk’s odd explanation. And odd it is.
To see why, consider how Musk’s own remarkable creation in the form of SpaceX earns some of its revenue: through federal expenditures meant to move cargo and people into space. If a portion of the money were just “printed” as Musk asserts, SpaceX would have little real value. Lest we forget, SpaceX earns dollars and is valued in dollars, but if the dollars flowing SpaceX’s way were just a function of the speed of the federal government’s printing press (something neo-Austrians like Peter St. Onge assert with a straight face), SpaceX would have little in the way of earnings and a valuation in dollars that no one would trust.
Read the full story at Forbes
