Is U.S. Heading for Zimbabwe Style Hyperinflation or Deflation?

By: Mike_Whitney

The Republicans are convinced that hyperinflation is just around the corner, but don't believe it. The real enemy is deflation, which is why Fed chief Bernanke has taken such extraordinary steps to pump liquidity into the system. The economy is flat on its back and hemorrhaging a half a million jobs per month. The housing market is crashing, retail sales are in a funk, manufacturing is down, exports are falling, and consumers have started saving for the first time in decades. There's excess capacity everywhere and aggregate demand has dropped off a cliff. If it wasn't for the Fed's monetary stimulus and myriad lending facilities, the economy would be stretched out on a marble slab right now. So, where's the inflation? Here's Paul Krugman with part of the answer:



"It's important to realize that there's no hint of inflationary pressures in the economy right now. Consumer prices are lower now than they were a year ago, and wage increases have stalled in the face of high unemployment. Deflation, not inflation, is the clear and present danger....

Is there a risk that we'll have inflation after the economy recovers? That's the claim of those who look at projections that federal debt may rise to more than 100 percent of G.D.P. and say that America will eventually have to inflate away that debt - that is, drive up prices so that the real value of the debt is reduced....Such things have happened in the past....

Some economists have argued for moderate inflation as a deliberate policy, as a way to encourage lending and reduce private debt burdens (but)... there's no sign it's getting traction with U.S. policy makers now." ("The Big Inflation Scare" Paul Krugman New York Times)

http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article11216.html

"Krugman has no chance of being correct. We haven't come anywhere near clearing the bad debt out of the economy, but we have to and further, we must reset downward economic output to match actual consumer demand."


http://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/P4.html

and info dixiegrrrrl...:hi:

;)

(moderate) inflation as a long-term policy doesn't reduce debt burdens at all; every lender would immediately adjust to baseline the new policy into their pricing. Lenders aren't stupid, they know how interest rates and inflation work.

In the late '60s, $30,000 in my hometown was considered to be a respectable retirement nest egg. Today, one illness could wipe it out.

... one illness could wipe out a lot more money than that. These days they check your financial health before they check your physical health so they can work out how much they can stick you for. That's not inflation doing that, that's a sick and twisted business practice which unfortunately has become a way of life for the whole industry.

since it is particularly important to people of retirement age. But you're right in that it seems that the health care industry does seem to size you up money-wise so they can calculate how much they can stick you for.

But it's not just health care-- nearly everything else seems to be going up, too.