One def on inflation is expanding monetary base. Regardless of price of products if the money supply expands 5% you have 5% inflation.
Another def of inflation is a PERSISTENT RISE in GENERAL LEVEL of prices. One product going up in price isn't inflation. If all products (on average) are rising in price it isn't because of a rise in demand it is because the amount of money has expanded faster than the available goods & services. Each unit of currency is worth less thus is requires more to get same amount of goods.
Scarcity driven price increases isn't inflation. If a war with Iran broke out and oil spiked to $400 per barrel we wouldn't say we have 400% inflation. Scarcity can drive prices up irregardless of inflation just as a lack of demand for a particular product can drive prices down.
The only "debate" on inflation is:
a) inflation = rate of monetary expansion
vs
b) inflation = rate of monetary expansion / rate of economic expansion
Sorry to be a grammar nazi, but everyone here is trying SO HARD to sound smart, and the use of the word
irregardless just destroys it in my mind. Sorry to pick on you DeathAndTaxes, others here have done it too. Can we please agree that
irregardless is not a word?
Whilst 'irregardless' might not be a word in a known dictionary, the mere utterance of the non-word word in a constructed sentence that conveys a comprehension of its intent into an understanding of what is being communicated suffices.
Ain't was a non-word word that became a word because of excessive use of the word. So, irregardless of the arguments, it might just be a non-word word that is waiting for inclusion into the great grammatical dictionaries of the time.
