A specter from the past hovers over the major industrialized nations: deflation. A decrease in the overall price level, deflation was a term relegated to economic history, with the notable exception of Japan following the bursting of its land and stock market bubble in the late 1980s. The everyday experience of the post-World War II generations has been inflation or rising prices. Besides a few exceptions, such as New York Times columnist and Nobel laureate Paul Krugman, many economists, central bankers, and Wall Street strategists primarily fret over prospects for inflation. Sure, prices may be tame at the moment, but inflation’s resurgence is inevitable—or so we’re repeatedly told.
Really?
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