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Deflation causes the economy to seize up as borrower’s debts grow in real terms even as they pay off the nominal balance and consumers put off consumption in th
by barry-cotter 6y ago
Deflation causes the economy to seize up as borrower’s debts grow in real terms even as they pay off the nominal balance and consumers put off consumption in the expectation things will be cheaper later. Demand collapses and the economy goes into a recession. It’s bad monetary policy. If you have deflation you should print more money until you don’t.
https://www.thebalance.com/what-is-deflation-definition-causes-and-why-it-s-bad-3306169 https://www.thebalance.com/what-is-deflation-definition-caus...
> Deflation occurs when asset and consumer prices fall over time. While this may seem like a great thing for shoppers, the actual cause of widespread deflation is a long-term drop in demand.
> Deflation often signals an impending recession. With a recession comes declining wages, job losses, and big hits to most investment portfolios. As a recession worsens, so does deflation. Businesses hawk ever-lower prices in desperate attempts to get consumers to buy their products and services.
- gumby 6y agoAnd fixed-volume currencies are inherently deflationary (e.g. gold, Bitcoin, etc). Actually gold is worse; back in the gold standard days economies suffered deflationary squeezes bunctuated by boom/bust as new goldfield strikes occurred and the supply suddenly shot up (California, Yukon, Victoria, etc just to look at the mid-late 1800s). You end up with a liquidity trap in the amount of money doesn’t increase/decrease roughly in proportion to the size of economic activity. Fortunately “roughly” as it’s hard to measure.