Sep 21, 2026 · 54 min · 13 segments
I’m joined by Larry Lepard, author of The Big Print, to talk about the coming age of Permanent Inflation. Driven by $40 trillion of debt now running over $2 trillion per year. We ask whether…
Yeah, I've argued, you know, I've got a bunch of articles talking about, you know, whether we should replace the Fed.
And of course we should, but with what? And the question is always, what does the Fed do? And in most people's minds, it fights inflation.
Like usually when you read about the Fed in the newspaper, it's talking about how, you know, inflation is getting, you know, whatever, it's it's too high.
They found two thirds of voters think that the main purpose of the Fed is fighting inflation.
So if it doesn't fight inflation, what does it do? And I think the answer is the main purpose of the Fed is the bailouts.
I think people underestimate, they see the bailouts, right? So it was, you know, whatever it was in 2008, 2.3 or 2.7, of which much was allegedly paid back.
Of course, there's risk adjusted and, you know, it's a transfer at the end of the day.
But that's not the real goal here for Wall Street, right? The real goal is the year-to-year money printing that people see 2% inflation, but once you include productivity growth, population growth, usage of dollars overseas, right? Once you include all that, you're probably talking closer to 5% money printing, which is what on the order of one and a half trillion.
Since 71, The money supply, M2, you know, I kind of measure, I'm a monetarist and Austrian in my economic views.
And that means that I kind of measure, you know, the inflation in terms of how much the money supply grows.
Yeah, I've argued, you know, I've got a bunch of articles talking about, you know, whether we should replace the Fed.
And of course we should, but with what? And the question is always, what does the Fed do? And in most people's minds, it fights inflation.
Like usually when you read about the Fed in the newspaper, it's talking about how, you know, inflation is getting, you know, whatever, it's it's too high.
They found two thirds of voters think that the main purpose of the Fed is fighting inflation.
So if it doesn't fight inflation, what does it do? And I think the answer is the main purpose of the Fed is the bailouts.
I think people underestimate, they see the bailouts, right? So it was, you know, whatever it was in 2008, 2.3 or 2.7, of which much was allegedly paid back.
Of course, there's risk adjusted and, you know, it's a transfer at the end of the day.
But that's not the real goal here for Wall Street, right? The real goal is the year-to-year money printing that people see 2% inflation, but once you include productivity growth, population growth, usage of dollars overseas, right? Once you include all that, you're probably talking closer to 5% money printing, which is what on the order of one and a half trillion.
Since 71, The money supply, M2, you know, I kind of measure, I'm a monetarist and Austrian in my economic views.
And that means that I kind of measure, you know, the inflation in terms of how much the money supply grows.
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