What is hyperinflation and can it occur to the U.S.?
Hyperinflation is caused by uncurbed money supply growth, usually mandated by central banks which are forced to meet excessive fiscal deficits or finance untenable expenditure programs (sound familiar?), and traditionally occurs in a context of adverse economic and political shocks. Ultimately, it has a psychological manifestation – a loss of confidence in the value of money, a flight into real assets and hard currencies, increase in bartering, a shrinkage in financial intermediation initially and the banking system overall, subsequently.
