Are you saying there can be no inflation?
Assuming that you mean monetary inflation (actual increase in the aggregate stock)? There would be natural inflation, and deflation, just like there always was, and always would be. For every commodity in exchange. Like corn, land, lumber, labor, you name, it, so much gold, silver, copper, and other
competing commodities are produced and made available to consumers each year. There is nothing fixed about any of that supply from the perspective of the consumer. They expand and contract, as
natural inflation and deflation. So much of that is saved, or held in reserve. That is
natural deflation (greater purchasing power, lower prices).
If you mean artificial monetary inflation, however, as in
counterfeit dilution, or
deliberate debasement of the currency - no. Never. Whether committed by a state or private individuals, that is a crime against everyone save those who benefit directly from it.
Under your scenario - what would be used as a nationally or globally accepted currency for trade, extension of credit and settlement of debts.
That last has two parts, which are separated.
You said "globally accepted currency", as in singular? Why only one? Dollars, euros, yen, yuan, pesos, lira, dinar, rupies, etc., all exist now. Anyone in the world can, in theory and often in practice, demand payment in any one or all of them, as they are cleared through the market with exchange rates.
Or are you referring to the paradigm of governments, and of a "global reserve currency"? Are you referring to the No Honor Among State Thieves paradigm we have now, as every nation that allows its currency holding sheep to be perpetually shorn in its own currency debauching treadmill, does not,
for that very same reason, trust other nations and their debased currencies, but insists instead on a particularly "strong" and "reliable" currency in clearing debts between themselves?
Before I answer, let's take on your second "keeping in mind" part:
Keeping in mind the realities of keeping the economy moving?
I am neither a statist nor a monetarist, so I don't buy into the mass delusion that central planning, control and mass manipulation (read=counterfeit dilution) of a currency, and therefore the market itself, is ever required by a state on the arrogant presumption that it must debase its currency (in the name of "elasticity") in order keep its economy moving, growing, or "more competitive". That is the biggest con ever perpetuated on the world's population, and everyone who is anyone who benefits from it is in on it - with lots of useful idiots with fear-based thinking in place who are buying into the illusion (or sucking from it in reality) to defend it. Left and Right.
Debasement of a currency in the name of market competitiveness (Currency Wars) puts an economy on speed, or steroids. It is like having a nationwide tax on the currency itself in order to promote a collectivized, nationalized, compulsory sale on
all goods and services from that nation. You'll sell more only because your currency was ARTIFICIALLY made worth less. The only real winners are those who benefited directly from the counterfeiting and dilution of the currency. And it is far from a zero-sum game. While that "market stimulation" is paid for by a hidden tax on ALL currency holders, it only serves to siphon real goods and services out of that economy, while placing upward pressure on prices of everything domestically.
My Aussie mate in China told me that he worked as a butcher in a packing house in Perth, Australia. He and his mates managed to steal a crate of beef that was marked "For Export To The USA Only". Best beef he had ever tasted in his life, he said. Aussies couldn't get really good beef in Australia without paying a ridiculous premium. That's because their dollars could not compete with OUR dollars at the time. The majority of the really good beef was slated for export to the US, based on US demand and the value of the US dollar relative to OZ dollars. The market substitution in Australia is lamb. Aussie lamb is not in demand by the US, so their lamb remains available to them domestically at reasonable prices.
Any nation with sound currenc
ies circulating (free of deliberate market distortions) will have naturally lower domestic prices, in addition to greater market stability. And that stability includes not having growth fueled by malinvestment, or growth only for the sake for growth, or keeping pace with continual theft. This also serves as a natural consumer protection, as domestic consumers compete
for their own products with foreign consumers. Those cheaper domestic prices don't translate well for exports to nations that debase their weakened currencies (in the name of keeping their exports more competitive - pay no attention to the real winners and losers behind the debauchery curtain). The
victims in those nations can't afford to import as much. Only those who are debasing the currency (closest to the thin-air money spigots) in those countries can afford the more expensive imports, because they are the CANNIBALS who are STEALING from their own, and are the primary beneficiaries at all times. The "economic activity" they "stimulate" is a matter of survival to all those who are adversely affected, and must keep pace with an artificial treadmill that siphons their life blood and productivity away from them.
ALL are desirous of having more of the stronger currency with the greatest relative value -- even to the point of seeing that as a "currency haven" -- a refuge, or "reserve" against
domestic monetary inflation. The problem is, WE wouldn't trust their consistently debauched/devalued currency any more than they do. Governments have never bought into the domestic currency debasement con game, which is why we had Bretton-Woods in the first place, long after Roosevelt ARROGATED/STOLE gold from the population, making it illegal to own. And assuming there are no
international legal tender laws (or shouldn't be, more to the point -- in effect there are), we would demand payment (public and private) in the stronger currency only - as that would be the only "acceptable" form of payment. So the problem is still theirs.
ONE LAST THING: You said, "extension of credit, and settlement of debts". Simplistically speaking, there are in effect
two competing sources of capital in any economy. One is banks, the other is Privately Accumulated Capital, also known as SAVINGS. In a normal, non-manipulated economy, bank loans and credit are AN EXTENSIONAL SUBSET of privately accumulated capital. One of the gravest, most pernicious distortions wrought by a debased currency is that it taxes privately accumulated capital, or savings, virtually out of existence. The primary winner in that artificial manipulation is the banks, as their source of competition is artificially suppressed to the point where the IDIOTS produced by this paradigm cannot conceive of an economy that runs on anything except bank credit or government distribution spigots. So you don't save for anything, that's stupid. You need credit for everything. My gosh, how could an economy even survive without
everyone pitching in the value of their savings?! And no permission required, of course. No bill to pay. We'll just dilute its value for you, whether you are aware of it or not, and use that to fund all the wonderful economic activity that COULD have otherwise been financed by YOU - using YOUR savings as you saw fit.
