It seems that not everyone is ready to join the deflation-first, then-inflation camp I am currently resident in.
There is some truth in this, but the awkward fact is that post-bubble economies tend to be deflation-prone.
In the name of battling inflation, the Fed is fueling deflation--witness depressed commodity prices, always a signal of trouble ahead.
Fellow FORBES columnist Gary Shilling carries the torch for the deflation-and-doom crowd.
When there's deflation--we experienced a mild bout of it in the late 1990s to 2002--it's the opposite: Not enough money is being created.
Panicked about a 1937s relapse into a deflation-depression, the Fed on August 10 decided to keep interest rates low and inject more money into the economy.
Unlike a few years ago, no one now seems to be concerned about the threat of deflation-yet most economists agree it is much harder to stop.
FORBES: The Week Ahead: Austerity Didn't Work in '37...What About Now?
Of course, dollarized countries, not to mention the U.S. itself, would benefit even more if the Federal Reserve ceased its deflation-oriented policies and pumped sufficient liquidity into the American banking system.
Greece saw overall deflation - on average, prices were actually lower than previously - instead of what is seen in normal economic conditions, in which some prices rise and some fall.
BBC: Eurozone and US inflation falls back on weaker oil price
"Our biggest problem is that the general public has been stuck with deflation -- in mind and heart -- for the past 20 years, " Japan's Finance Minister Taro Aso told CNN's Jill Dougherty recently.
CNN: 'Abenomics' changing opinions and skirt lengths in Japan
The yen's slump across a range of currencies has occurred as a new government has pledged to revive the deflation-dogged Japanese economy and has pressured the Bank of Japan to aggressively ease monetary policy.
WSJ: Strong Start to 2013 Hints at Revival for Currency Funds
Adherence to an unsustainable currency union - the Gold Standard - then forced governments to continue deflation-worsening policies, provoking social unrest and inter-country tension over unpaid debts (in this case war reparations, but still debts).
On the other hand, hopes that reconstruction would alleviate the twin forces that have been hurting the economy -- the rising value of the yen and persistent deflation -- did not occur, either, Kiuchi notes.
Monetary instability--inflation and deflation--distorts that information mechanism.
Investors had been worried that the economy was going to start experiencing deflation--a prolonged bout of falling prices--but the slight increase, paired with Thursday's higher than expected reading on producer price inflation, calms those worries for now.
In short, by implementing anti-deflation and economic growth-stimulating deregulation, while holding down increases in social welfare spending, above-listed objectives 1. and 2. can be realized without increasing taxes.
By the central bank's reckoning, official figures understate deflation by up to one percentage point, which suggests that Japan is suffering a persistent consumer-price deflation of perhaps 1-2%.
After all, we're just beginning to recover from the fallout of the much-milder Greenspan deflation of 1997-2001.
But there is a growing sense that Japan's problems - debt, deflation and demographics - must be confronted by policymakers and voters and not ignored for too much longer.
After all, we're just beginning to recover from the fallout of the much-milder Alan Greenspan deflation of 1997-2001.
While not a gang buster rate of monetary inflation, certainly nothing like we are seeing in the US, it is notable in that the Euro money supply was flirting with monetary deflation mid-2011.
During the company's conference call, management said that deflation affected first-quarter perishables by 0.5% to 1%, adding that deflation is expected to continue through the second quarter, according to TradeTheNews.com.
Some analysts believe Japanese consumer spending - long weighed down by price deflation and weak sentiment - may also be poised to recover.
The potential of a long debt-deflation period resembles Japan, but with a crucial difference.
Japan, on the other hand, seems settled in an ultra-low rate, counter-deflation, mode.
This caused a debt-deflation spiral in America that infected the rest of the world.
In December Masaru Hayami, governor of the Bank of Japan, gave warning of the risk that deflation could re-emerge.
With all the talk about deflation, double-dip recession, housing troubles and unemployment, it has increasingly become difficult to find Wall Street bulls.
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