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Inflation is the fiscal complement of statism and arbitrary government. It is a cog in the complex of policies and institutions which gradually lead toward totalitarianism .
Ludwig Von Mises
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Inflation often results from government policies that limit freedoms and can lead to authoritarianism.

This quote by Ludwig Von Mises asserts that inflation is not merely a financial issue, but a consequence of government control and intervention in the economy. He suggests that as governments exercise more power over fiscal matters, it can result in constraints that erode individual liberties, paving the way for totalitarianism.

Themes

InflationGovernmentStatismTotalitarianismEconomics

In practice

Example use cases

In a speech about economic policies, one might say, 'As Ludwig Von Mises pointed out, inflation can be a sign of greater government control.'

More from Ludwig Von Mises

The idea that political freedom can be preserved in the absence of economic freedom, and vice versa, is an illusion. Political freedom is the corollary of economic freedom.
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Only stilted pedants can conceive the idea that there are absolute norms to tell what is beautiful and what is not. They try to derive from the works of the past a code of rules with which, as they fancy, the writers and artists of the future should comply. But the genius does not cooperate with the pundit.
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The most serious dangers for American freedom and the American way of life do not come from without.
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The public firm can nowhere maintain itself in free competition with the private firm; it is possible today only where it has a monopoly that excludes competition. Even that alone is evidence of its lesser economic productivity.
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Each epoch has found in the Gospels what it sought to find there, and has overlooked what it wished to overlook.
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