Inflation

Inflation may refer to someone or something blowing air into a balloon, to a particular epoch in the evolution of universe where the metric expansion of space happened at an exponential rate, or to money decreasing in value because someone allows loads of additional money to be printed.

Confusion between these three concepts has led a great number of people to believe that someone is blowing air into the universe through a tiny hole, money decreases in value because the universe is getting bigger, and the government likes popping balloons.