The degree to which inflation works as a tool for "managing" debt is super duper underappreciated. This is true for national governments (which might instruct a central bank to aim for low but positive inflation to sort of… ~simmer away~ a national debt) AND ALSO for households.

U.S. & U.K. inflation rates in the 1970s were gnarly, which obviously has negative consequences, buuut… if you were a Baby Boomer with a mortgage… that 10-20% inflation rate effectively gave you a huge discount on your house

Even now, so many decades after the trauma of the 1970s, basically everyone, on every segment of the political spectrum, is like, "inflation, eek!" But the truth is, if you have more debts than assets—which is obviously the case for many households—you should… be kinda into it??

Don't mind me, just macro tweetin

These tweets brought to you by this great post from Adam Tooze: https://adamtooze.com/2020/05/16/crashed-to-corona-6-for-a-politics-of-monetary-policy/

See also: https://www.robinsloan.com/notes/inflation/