Afternoon Must-Read: Matt O’Brien: The Latest Dumb Inflation Argument from a Billionaire

…Never underestimate the ingenuity of inflation truthers…. His latest investor letter recycles all these ideas, inveighing against the Fed’s ‘fake prices,’ ‘fake money,’ and ‘fake jobs,’ before zeroing in on where inflation is really showing up–his wallet: ‘Check out London, Manhattan, Aspen and East Hampton real estate prices, as well as high-end art prices, to see what the leading edge of hyperinflation could look like.’ That’s right: Paul Singer thinks Weimar-style inflation might be coming because he has to pay more for his posh vacation homes and art pieces…. The Fed, you see, isn’t worried about the Billionaire Price Index. It’s worried about inflation on goods and services we all face…. Just because the super-rich are bidding up the prices of houses in the Hamptons doesn’t mean that middle-class people, whose wages are flat, are going to bid up the price of, well, anything…. If this is the best the inflation truthers can do, they should probably follow Mark Twain’s advice and keep their mouths closed…