ABSTRACT
Some recent publications and official documents referring to the repercussions of inflation on public households create the impression of some sort of roulette gambling, rather than describing an interplay of economic actions and reactions with a more or less predictable outcome. This is a new phenomenon, since in the past the prevailing thought of economists and politicians was the conviction that, eventually, government would come out as the winner in the game. Today, one recognises that striking a balance between budgetary losses and gains from inflationary processes is a very difficult and complicated task. It is not astonishing, therefore, that the results of theoretical and empirical studies on these issues differ considerably.
