But since everybody got both they didn't lose anything: they got some jstanleycoins too (unless you were lending dollars, then you may not get them both back). So the wealth/spending power didn't decrease, there was no inflation.
I'd say there is inflation, just as there would be if everyone got two dollars for each dollar they hold. But the idea that people wouldn't lose anything is true.
I think that "unless you were lending dollars" bit is a really important aspect of this, though. Lending happens a lot. This is true even in the Bitcoin world. We don't normally call it "lending," but that's what people do whenever they store coins on an exchange.
This has been a major problem with these forks, too. You deposit some Bitcoin with an exchange, then there's a fork... do they owe you the forked currency as well, or not? There's no obvious answer to that.
