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Comment by mountainriver | Hacker News Reader

Eventually we’ll run through all the money we dumped into the economy.

If you are talking about monetary stimulus/low interest rates, you have a point, but if you are talking about expanded unemployment or Berniebucks, that's been gone from the economy for quite some time.

What are “Berniebucks”? A cursory google search suggests that they are either Safari Ltd’s reward program or Bernie Sanders fundraising for his 2016 run for President, but neither of those seem germane to this conversation.

Is the notion that Bernie Sanders is somehow responsible for all of the economic stimulus given to US citizens during the pandemic?

I believe that they’re referring to Ben Bernanke and the policy of giving money directly to the populous, bypassing other intermediary institutions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helicopter_money

Berniebucks refers to the greatly expanded unemployment insurance distributed during the pandemic, which resulted from an amendment by Bernie Sanders. Bernie heavily criticized the unamended bill, especially the bipartisan giveaways to Wall Street, and refused to support it without his amendment.

Given the context, they seem to be using it to refer to direct-to-the-people stimulus payments, because Sanders is a Socialist and advocates for more such payments. (Though oddly non-pejoratively, based on their phrasing.)

You don't really “run through it” since the money is still there (unless the central bank pulls it out).

But you are right that eventually the economy would grow enough to “soak up” the extra money and it wouldnt be so inflationary.

You run through it by having it move to the top, where it sits. $100 in the bank account of someone who only has $200 will be far more active in the economy than someone who has $2,000,000. Or $2B.

Unless you're putting money under a mattress, money in the bank or investments still circulates and creates inflationary pressures.

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