Today, I hauled my wheelbarrow full of money over to the supermarket...

[kentuck]

to get some milk and bread. Remember when inflation in Germany and Europe during or after WWI was so bad that people carried their money in huge baskets and the baskets were worth more than the money in it? Is that the direction we are headed. Your money will be worthless because inflation is the final destination of the present insane spending by Bush and the Republicans. We will have to print massive amounts of money to pay off our debts. That's one of the reasons why they are so concerned about Social Security....because they are going to have to pay it back to maintain the credibility of the US Government. They have had their Party and now it's time to pay the piper.

[BL611]

1. Maybe eventually, but...

We'll see massive unemployment before we see inflation, luckily America doesn't have to play by IMF rules yet, but when (and if we keep amassing debt more likely if) the world reserve is no longer the dollar, all hell will break lose and we'll see if we live up to our own anti inflationary standards (although I certainly hope it never happens)

[kentuck]

2. We all certainly "hope" it never happens...

But let us trust in the Lord... and George W Bush.

[dweller]

3. so what you're saying is

invest in wheelbarrows and buckets and baskets?

just how big a handbasket will hold all of us?

dp

[ret5hd]

8. Satans birthday list:

1) MORE HANDBASkETS!!!

[Zenlitened]

4. That strikes very close to home for me.

My grandmother grew up in Germany during those times, and it doesn't sound at all pleasant! They were farm folk, and could be a lot more self-reliant than many of us today -- yet it was still a hard, hard time.

I can't imagine what it would be like now, being so far removed from the land, so dependent on the ATM machine spitting out bills in useful amounts.

:(

[trogdor]

5. OTOH...

...that's when we all get to pay off our mortgages and credit cards on the cheap. Inflation, if you remember, is the debtor's friend. Just do it before the government starts protecting the creditors.

[Nimrod]

6. It got even better

You could order a cup of coffee for 50 cents, and by the time it got to you the price was 75 cents.

The elite is so entrenched there will be further and further measures taken to remove money from the rest of us first though. I already can't go out for coffee at all.

What you describe WILL come to pass eventually.

[Silverhair]

7. I think you are hoping, not predicting.

You may want to remember what inflation was like under Jimmy Carter. It brought him down, (Along with the hostages hurting him badly.) so you are hoping for a big round of inflation to bring down the W. The fact is that long term interest rates are now even hinting at renewed inflation.

[kentuck]

9. They have no problem printing the denominations...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperinflation#Models_of_hyperinflation

By late 1923, the Weimar Republic of Germany was issuing fifty-million-mark banknotes and postage stamps with a face value of fifty billion marks. The highest value banknote issued by the Weimar government's Reichsbank had a face value of 100 Billion marks (100,000,000,000,000 or One Hundred Trillion US/UK) <1> (http://www.sammler.com/coins/inflation.htm). One of the firms printing these notes submitted an invoice for the work to the Reichsbank for 32,776,899,763,734,490,417.05 (3.28×1019, or 33 quintillion) Marks.

The largest denomination banknote ever officially issued for circulation was in 1946 by the Hungarian National Bank for the amount of 100 quintillion Pengő (100,000,000,000,000,000,000, or 1.0 × 1020). image (http://bankjegy.szabadsagharcos.org/xxcentury/p136.htm) (There was even a banknote worth 10 times more, i.e. 1.0 × 1021 Pengő, printed, but not issued image (http://bankjegy.szabadsagharcos.org/xxcentury/p137.htm).) The Post-WWII hyperinflation of Hungary holds the record for the most extreme monthly inflation rate ever - 41,900,000,000,000,000% (4.19 × 1016%) for July, 1946.
One way to avoid the use of large numbers is by declaring a new unit of currency (so, instead of 10,000,000,000 Dollars, a bank might set 1 New Dollar = 1,000,000,000 old Dollars, so the new note would read "10 New Dollars".) While this does not lessen actual value of a currency, it is called revaluation.