There is a point at which firmness of conviction becomes obstinacy, and there is a point at which obstinacy becomes comedy. The latter was on spectacular view the other day when a prominent inflation hawk self-destructed on national TV.

CNBC reporter Rick Santelli, who gets credit for spawning the Tea Party with a 2009 rant, has long warned that the Federal Reserve is courting not just inflation but hyperinflation with its prolonged expansion of the money supply. For five years, the inflation has taunted him by failing to materialize.