Editing 76-18-B5 (section)

= Inflation =

<TABLE BORDER="0"><TR><TD WIDTH="60%" ROWSPAN="2">
=== Transcript ===
The French have a saying for it, "The more things change, the more they
remain the same." Do you suppose the Frenchman who first said it had Washington
in mind?

We are enduring the longest period of "inflation" in our nation's history
and something else we've never known before -- world-wide inflation. Solemnly,
high officials in every nation talk of the need to do something about it. But,
what they end up doing -- in the name of stimulating the economy -- is to make the
average citizen the patsy in an economic shell game he doesn't understand.

Very simply, government votes to go on spending as much -- but usually more --
than it has been spending. At the same time, using terms like such as "stimulating
the economy", "increasing employment" or "providing more for the unemployed", it
creates an illusion of effective action. It proudly proclaims it has pumped more
money into the economy. And it has -- printing press money.

In the last 10 years our government has -- by simply running the printing
presses at the Treasury Department -- increased the supply of money in circulation
more than four times as much as the increase in goods and services available for
purchase. We foolishly feel richer because we have more money. But then, we
discover prices have gone up. We call it inflation and get angry with the storekeeper,
the manufacturer or even labor. Here we just got rich and those greedy
so-and-so's are going to make us poor again.

It's that word inflation that does us in. In these 10 years when the money
supply has increased 112% and the goods and services for sale have only increased
24%, they have devalued our money by 44¢ on the dollar. Prices haven't gone up.
Each newly printed dollar should read "66 cents". And that's only compared to
the dollar of 10 years ago. Think what it's worth compared to those dollars we
had in 1939 or even 1956 at the end of the war.

Rising prices don't cause inflation. Inflation is the cause of rising prices.
It would be more honest and less confusing if they'd quit talking about the 
cost-of-living index and simply tell us by how many pennies and nickels and dimes
they've reduced the value of our money every year. Of course, if they did that
we'd probably quit going along with the shell game.

Why does government play this game to begin with? Well, it allows them to
spend money they haven't had to raise taxes to get. They can get away with it
because, unlike raising a tax, our money is whittled away a few cents at a time.
And, when we do catch on we blame -- as I said before -- the wrong people.

And, of course, the politicians help us blame the wrong people. Along about
vote buying time they come over the hill like the cavalry with all kinds of plans
for protecting us from venal and greedy profiteers; consumer protection agencies,
more regulations, and even price control. All of which makes them look like
heroes saving us from the bad guys.

If we look back at even fairly recent history, we'll see that -- whether the
politicians intended it or not -- when inflation reaches a certain point nations
go totalitarian. Socialism or Fascism takes over and they are virtually the
same thing.

At the recent London Economic Conference one of our officials declared
inflation to be caused by many things and therefore requiring many cures. If he
really believes that he had no business being there. Inflation is caused by one
thing -- government spending more than government takes in. It .will go away when
government stops doing that. 

This is Ronald Reagan.

Thanks for listening.
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="10%" ROWSPAN="2">&nbsp;</TD>
<TD VALIGN="TOP" HEIGHT="250">
=== Details ===
<TABLE BORDER="0" WIDTH="80%">
<TR><TD WIDTH="150">Batch Number</TD><TD WIDTH="150">{{PAGENAME}}</TD></TR>
<TD>Production Date</TD><TD>08/15/[[Radio1977|1977]]</TD></TR>
<TD>Book/Page</TD><TD>[[Radio_Commentary_Books#Reagan.27s_Path_to_Victory|RPtV-186]]</TD></TR>
<TD>Audio</TD><TD></TD></TR>
<TD>Youtube?</TD><TD>No</TD></TR>
</TABLE>
</TD></TR>
<TR><TD VALIGN="TOP">
===Added Notes===

</TD></TR>
</TABLE>