“Inflation in core needs, deflation in everything else, wage stagnation.” This has been called in-deflation or disinflation and has been the dominant paradigm

“Inflation in core needs, deflation in everything else, wage stagnation.” This has been called in-deflation or disinflation and has been the dominant paradigm since the turn of the century, at least in the US and much of the developed world. The terminal end state of the disinflationary economy is desperate people living check to check but carrying supercomputers with instant access to all knowledge and all media in their pockets. Wages have risen a bit lately (in real terms even after inflation) but not nearly enough to undo 20 years of the above pattern.