Inflation is when there is an increase in the money supply. Prices rise because the currency is weaker.

Kyllo held that the use of a thermal imaging device from a public vantage point to monitor the radiation of heat from a person's home was a "search" within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment, and thus required a warrant. Because the police in this case did not have a warrant, the Court reversed Kyllo's conviction for growing marijuana.

Majority: Scalia, joined by Souter, Thomas, Ginsburg, Breyer

Dissent: Stevens, joined by Rehnquist, O'Connor, Kennedy

Kyllo was a win for us, but you can bet Sotamayor and Kagan will follow Stevens lead, and Roberts and Alito will follow Rehnquist/Connor. We get the worst of both the "liberal" and "conservative" Justices.

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyllo_v._United_States

So let's say the government can't inflate the currency or issue bonds. Let's say they can't tax either, because the same argument would be used.

Inflation hides the true cost of war by spreading out that cost over time and suffusing the cost throughout the economy. Wars should be paid for through taxes; that way the people experience the true cost of war closer to real time.

We have been financing the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq largely through inflation, but the American public has not yet felt the full brunt of that cost. But they will.