I have to question slightly the basis of the original question.

People get all alarmist about things like hyperinflation, market crashes, etc. Because these things are dramatic and grab attention (and readers, which helps sell ads). The reality is usually much more complicated.

I will use the common definition of inflation as the increase in prices of items (not the official definition of an increase in the money supply), since that is how almost everyone uses the term.

Leaving aside 1970’s-style supply constraint shocks, the only way we can get significant inflation in prices of widely used goods is to either increase the incomes of the people who buy these items, or to increase the number of these people, or increase in their willingness to borrow to buy these items.

As I see it, the only people who still have the ability to buy (or borrow to buy) significantly more of things are the rich and upper middle class. The rest of American society is close to being maxed out.

So the main items that are going up in price are the things in demand by the ever-richer rich and upper middle class. These are the people who have benefited in various ways from government actions and the modern economy.

So it is specifically the items with high demand by the rich and upper middle class which are seeing inflation and will likely to experience price increases.

What are these things?

-Higher education: The kids of the rich and upper middle class go to college. One way or another, through cash or loans, these kids will get that important status symbol – the college degree (and law degree/medical degree/MBA, whatever).

-Complex medicine: The rich and upper middle class like being healthy, and like their kids being healthy. Money will always be thrown at this problem. One way or another, money will be found to ensure this.

-Financial markets: The rich and upper middle class, along with the pension funds, hedge funds (for the really rich), etc, which cater to them, have enormous amounts to invest. And central banks are there to make sure their financial positions keep looking rosy for the foreseeable future.

-Luxury items and art investments, etc. These are things for the rich and wannabe rich. These people have money and/or ability to borrow to get these status symbols. Plus a lot of these investments have been going up, so there is a virtuous cycle which will keep going until/unless the rich/upper middle class get whacked by something. Central banks are there to make sure 2008 doesn’t happen again anytime soon.

I actually think that there is already very significant inflation going on in the economy. It is just in things beyond the “necessities” and which are not well captured by the CPI (probably deliberately – can’t let the COLA for ordinary folks get too out of hand, now can we).

But hyperinflation in the historical sense, with people pushing wheelbarrows of money bills to buy bread – no, I don’t foresee that at all. Instead, you push wheelbarrows of money to buy the items desired by the rich and upper middle class, especially if they are supply-constrained – the stocks of hot tech startups; luxury condos in the hippest cities; dinner at fancy restaurants; putting your kids through private colleges – that sort of thing.

So it is in the rich/upper middle class items where inflation is. For everything else, 99 Cent stores will welcome you with cheap made-in-China goods.