deflation

When an economy suffers deflation, as Japan has done for several years, nobody has any incentive to spend money today.

The basic idea behind austerity is that deflation via government cuts will rein in budget deficits and sovereign debt.

Deflation also means that the economy adjusts to real shocks in the most disruptive way possible.

I join most economists in thinking that deflation is bad, and it will be good if Japan can stop it.

But if inflation is negative--i.e., if they have deflation--then they have to do something more drastic.

Three pairs of lungs sighed audibly in process of deflation.

There was a concerted stiffening of bodies, a general sigh from lungs in process of deflation.

The Presidents plans for regulated deflation came to naught.

Later, when there was a metal coinage, this cycle of inflation and deflation became still clearer.

Occasionally a region with an adverse balance of trade would lose all its copper money, with the result of a local deflation.