Where Is the Panic Over Deflation? We can tell you where it is not. It is not at the grocery store. It is not at the gas pump. It is not in our electric bill, water bill, cable bill or any other bill. It is not in our health care costs, the Doctor’s Office, Walmart, Kmart, Costco, Best Buy, the farmers market, the stock market, The Boston Market and of course there is no longer any free market. Yet Jason Wolfers (over at Bloomberg) is telling us that “the U.S. is experiencing deflation” and “Right now, the risk of deflation is greater than the risk of explosive inflation. And the probability of continuing to undershoot the inflation target is far greater than the probability of overshooting it“. Something tells us that when the current Fed inflated market bubble bursts this guy will be among the first to tell us that “no one could have seen it coming”.
This post was last modified on September 26, 2013
View Comments (27)
If things get any cheaper my money may soon be worth something.
Two words, weimar republic, it didn't work then, and it ain't gonna work now.
Just checked the Consumer Price Index for the past few months, and know what I found? It's higher than it's ever been! Deflation my a$$.
Eastasia has always been at war with Oceania.
2+2=5
Nope you got that wrong because you came up with a number. The wrong number but a number.
We are in the 1+1=POTATO zone now. "Raising the debt limit doesn't mean we have more debt." The "We have to borrow more money to keep from going broke" zone.
But It's all right because I hear our chocolate ration is going up at the end of the month!
I want more Victory Gin.
Keep it up and you're going to Room 101.
OH NO!! PLEASE NOT ROOM 101!!
In theory, if you travel back in time to the Bush era you can experience deflation from Obama's inflation. As an added bonus the globe will cool as you go backward in time.
And if you travel back to the Clinton era you can still see 1.70 gas that doubled due to Bush's war for oil.
And if you travel back to the pre-Nixon era, you can get your gold back.
Richard Nixon no longer has my gold. He put it on your EBT card!
Kip, do you realize how depressing it is that you are reminding me that Crowley is stealing my gold?
He got your gold too? That guy's EBT card is damn greedy!
He's stealing ALL of our gold. Time to cut him off.
Deflation is a good thing. It's one step closer to us getting our gold back that Corporate Greed stole.
Possible deflation in this case would have little to do with re establishing Bretton Woods. It occurred in the 80s under Paul Volcker due to raising of interest rates and that was done without offloading the fiat system Although there is no deflation right now. Any econometrics stating so are incredibly obscured by the fact that they are not quantifying everything nor could they even if they actually tried . . . which they do not.
Deflation, rapid at least, is not always good. While I would welcome a return to lower prices at the grocery store it would be problematic when it came to paying my mortgage with dollars that were more valuable than the ones I borrowed. I understand this will never be a problem with you.
But don't think you would escape unscathed. The fiscal responsibility required to shrink the money supply back to a level at which it was better pegged to real wealth would mean the printing presses would have to stop. Without the printing presses there would be no money for you and your EBT card to steal my gold with!
Without the printing presses there would be no money for you and your EBT card to steal my gold with!
Every cloud has a silver (or in this case GOLD) lining!
Only place I can see deflation is LCD TVs.
Taking out food and energy in the CPI is full on bullshit. That is the only thing that everybody needs.
OAN, I had a rental and turned on the electricity and water to do some renovations. Cost to get electric turned on $6, cost to get the CITY WATER turned on $40. Time to get the electric turned on 4 hours. time to get CITY WATER turned on 3 days. Because these were new bills i paid both a few days late. Late fee to the evil private utility, $0.35 (.1%). Late fee to the SUPER EVIL CITY WATER utility, $8.00 (25%).
Now who is fucking over the consumer, evil private corporations or public utilities?
So true. My city utilities get me by pricing the water correctly (something I can kind of compare) but having having outrageous rates for things that "transport" and "sewage treatment". Those services, which I cannot compare to anything, cost something like ten times what the water does.
Not considering food or energy is total BS.
And I totally love how all the containers in the grocery store have staid the same size while the contents have dropped by a third without any price decrease.
Some of those volume/weight changes are by 25% or you used to get 33% more for the same or more cost. Note how all the Orange juice containers are not 1/2 gallon (64 ounces). Now they are 59 ounces. We used to get ((59-64)/59=8.5% more). They are also selling bacon in 12 oz packages a 33% haircut.
Of course, gas has gone up 122% under King Barky the Economic Illiterate. Remember when he said that cheaper gas was like a tax cut? Well Quagmire has taxed us real hard by his twisted logic.
Just look at the density of paper towels and toilet paper. More expensive but more loosely rolled to package less.
Ecunomiks iz hard.
I R gonna say Eleventy!
Oh sure NSS, show off your kalkulus skillz! ;)
I R done Gradeated the Crowley Skreel of Economecs as a Scolar with a a +
Oooooh, that's one of them there PHDee programs, Doktur NSS.