Lex Luthor wrote:
I was thinking about some things, and wonder if anyone knows the answers.
1) If you have a small isolated country, is it possible for every business to profit?
Yes.
Quote:
2) Can stock prices keep going up even if no new money is printed?
Yes.
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3) How could market growth exceed inflation?
Wealth is not static.
Screeling wrote:
I think part of the problem with these questions is they assume that wealth and currency are the same thing.
Exactly. So long as new wealth is being generated faster than it is being consumed, this is possible.
For example:
(1) Natural resources are harvested and sold. Net gain for farmers, forestry, mining companies, energy, etc.
(2) The manufacturers that bought those resources turn them into products for sale, worth more than the net resources. They sell to make a profit.
(3) The above companies employ people. They take a wage, and buy the products.
(4) So much additional wealth is being generated, that a service sector emerges, offering intangibles for profit.
None of this is linear. The natural resource harvesters are also using up manufactured resources, such as machinery and energy and food. It's not a simple line, but it works.
You only need enough cash to facilitate liquidity. (A barter system doesn't need any cash, but it's not nearly as easy to do business in.) Cash isn't the limitation, inflation isn't necessary. So long as resources exist to exploit, wealth can continue to grow.
It's helpful to remember that Bill Gates doesn't have 50 billion dollars in currency available to him. He has 50 billion dollars worth of investments. There is not enough currency in circulation for everyone to convert their wealth to currency. Wealth is not measured in terms of available money.