How inflation determines our lives

Photo by Alexander Schimmeck on UnsplashEverywhere you look: Prices are exploding. Food, building materials, electrical appliances, electricity — everything is getting more expensive. And not just a little bit. Those who use Bitcoin escape this destructive game — and drive the decentralized monetary reform that may be needed.Yes. Bitcoin has its weaknesses, its flaws, and its problems. The cryptocurrency consumes too much power, the price is too volatile, and scaling with Lightning continues to be rubbish.Bitcoin may not be the perfect solution. But cryptocurrency remains the only real alternative to the fiat money system. And never has such an alternative been more needed than today. This is shown by some news of the last weeks.Let’s start with the Federal Statistical Office reporting current inflation at two percent. This means that inflation has (finally) returned to the level that the European Central Bank (ECB) has defined as its target. But if the ECB and the Bundesbank have their way, inflation will exceed this target this year at around three percent.At this point, one no longer knows whether to laugh or cry.So many experts — including the ECB — were still assuring us last year that there was no inflation to fear, but rather deflation. If anything, mild inflation would still be a long way off. Institutional economists dismissed the trivial, instinctively understandable equation that a shrinking economy and a rising money supply lead to higher prices as too simple.So now it turns out that inflation does exist, and the experts are once again surprised. But even before they have swallowed their surprise, they are already reassuring themselves with new forecasts. This time, they will certainly be right: It won’t be that bad, three, four percent inflation at the most, and that only temporarily. It is an “inflation hump,” says former ECB…