April 1, 2013 10:30AM 

# Deficits and Inflation, from the Fed to the Cartoon Page 

By [David Boaz](https://www.cato.org/people/david-boaz) 

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You know you’ve arrived when your name starts showing up in cartoons. Here’s the *Wall Street Journal*’s legendary “Pepper … and Salt” [cartoon](http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324685104578386851090561648.html?KEYWORDS=pepper+and+salt+archive) from last Thursday:

![Media Name: 201304_blog_boaz11.jpg](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/pubs_2x/public/images/201304_blog_boaz11.jpg?itok=0Yq5S167) 

Of course, most inflation obsessives [are deficit scolds](http://www.fee.org/the_freeman/detail/what-spending-and-deficits-do#axzz2PDlTVBuz), so it’s not clear that host is going to get much debate.

One person who might be called both an inflation obsessive — that is, a person who objects to the robbery of savers through the erosion of the value of their money — and a deficit scold is David Stockman, former budget director for President Ronald Reagan. He has a new book out, *[The Great Deformation: The Corruption of Capitalism in America](http://www.amazon.com/Great-Deformation-Capitalism-Corrupted-Democracy/dp/1586489127),* which he [summarized](http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/31/opinion/sunday/sundown-in-america.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0) in the *New York Times* on Sunday. He’ll be [speaking](https://www.cato.org/events/great-deformation-corruption-capitalism-america) about his book at the Cato Institute on Wednesday. Don’t miss it.

##### Related Tags 

[Tax and Budget Policy](https://www.cato.org/tax-budget-policy), [Inflation](https://www.cato.org/inflation) 

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