The Fault of Inflation Is in the Legalized Counterfeiting Operations of the Government Itself--The Power to Create New Money

The fault of inflation is not in business “monopoly,” or in union agitation, or in the hunches of speculators, or in the “greediness” of consumers; the fault is in the legalized counterfeiting operations of the government itself. For the government is the only institution in society with the power to counterfeit—to create new money. So long as it continues to use that power, we will continue to suffer from inflation, even unto a runaway inflation that will utterly destroy the currency.

--Murray N. Rothbard, introduction to the third edition of America's Great Depression, 5th ed. (Auburn, AL: Ludwig von Mises Institute, 2000), xxix.