The strictest definition (and I would argue, the most useful) is an expansion of the money supply. That’s it.

Devaluation is something else entirely, and it’s undeniable. It’s also quite undeniable who it hurts and who it helps. Savers and wager earners are the losers in devaluation. Debtors and government contractors are the beneficiaries.

You can make monetarist arguments and I’m familiar with all of them, but fundamentally, if you ROB from earners and savers to the benefit of debtors and cronies — that is, if you steal from the productive to the benefit of leeches and deadbeats, you will eventually destroy confidence in the currency and in the meantime, you’re punishing the productive people to the benefit of the unproductive. That’s not a good recipe, and again, it’s immoral and unethical.