>Is -0.1% deflation really that disastrous for economies? Is it really worse than 10% inflation? Yes, it has to do with how people react. Japan has been fighti

>Is -0.1% deflation really that disastrous for economies? Is it really worse than 10% inflation? Yes, it has to do with how people react. Japan has been fighting it for awhile now. http://honesteconomics.com/history/japan-and-deflation/ http://honesteconomics.com/history/japan-and-deflation/ Japan has many problems. Their immense debt basically requires them to have a total tax burden of ~95%. That is to say, you work for the government for the entire year and you dont even get anything for it. They are just paying the interest payments on their debt and dont get services from their government. Then you have the real factor that as boomers leave the workforce. There isnt enough people to replace them. The only thing that seems to be keeping Japan afloat is their government owned slaves. Their judicial system still has forced labour and also a 99% conviction rate. Get accused of a crime and you're going to be producing goods for japanese companies. There's also the "technical intern training" which basically enslaves non-citizens and traps them in these jobs for life. The numbers are extremely suspect as well. The number of goods produced and recorded by big entities like their automotive industry or electronics like Sony couldn't possibly have been produced by the these government slaves. Makes you wonder where the forced labour camps are that aren't making it into the numbers. >I've never experienced it, so can't speak too authoritatively, but it kind of feels like accepted wisdom in the economic academia: so it isn't questioned - but a lot of economics is propaganda for the powerful, IMO - would minor deflation really hurt the common man significantly? Or would it mostly just punish the rich and powerful who are extremely leveraged? This derives from the fractional banking system. Basically a bank will lend out $20 for every $1 it has. That is to say if they have a 20:1 ratio. The central bank manages this ratio. The idea is that in a deflationary environment, you kind of break the fractional reality. Interest rates would be bottom or negative. So you are giving money away AND deflating which means the people you give money to can just hold the free money and make money? Who wouldn't jump at such a wonderful thing? You can see this happening. Germany's 10 year bond right now is -0.065%. So you buy that bond and the person lending you money has to give you 0.065% per year? for 10 years? LOL? Japan is positive at 0.14% but has been awfully negative lately. Obviously Japan/Germany are worse off because they were the losers of WW2. The boomers retiring harms them the most. To avoid deflation, they are giving away free debt. Why? Debt is money. For every $ that exists, it's just debt. That's the fractional banking system. Oh and here's the real kicker. https://medium.com/navigating-life/we-just-went-from-fractional-reserve-banking-to-zero-reserve-banking-and-its-a-pretty-big-deal-c501432e9be6 https://medium.com/navigating-life/we-just-went-from-fractio... The USA on March 26, 2020 eliminated the fractional banking ratio. They can lend out $1000 per $1 if they so please. What a disaster.