| 38. To Ivan
Firth (February 12, 1951)
Inflation is not a condition of imbalance between goods supply
and money supply, for such imbalance cannot occur. Money cannot
be issued without an exchange of goods and services, since it
is not an entity apart from exchange but springs out of exchange,
nor can it be issued unilaterally, since every issue of money
requires the tender of it by a buyer and a tender of value by
a seller. Hence the two sides are always synchronized and always
in balance. Thus, if there were no spurious monetary units injected,
the price level would remain constant, though, of course, individual
commodities would rise and, reciprocally, others would fall, thus
balancing the rises with the falls.
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