Deflation is the ogre that must be fought decisively

[OwlHoot]

According to Christine Lagarde, head of the IMF:

Deflation is the ogre that must be fought decisively

So on the face of it, not much chance of interest rates rising for the foreseeable future

(as some of us, such as DimPrawn and myself, have been saying ever since the crisis started when many were waffling on about interest rates rising within months)

[VectraMan]

Electronics and computing lives in a permanent state of deflation. Never seems to do much harm.

[doodab]

The only way to avoid deflation is wage inflation. Fannying about with interest rates isn't going to help because we're saturated with credit already.

[AtW]

Electronics and computing lives in a permanent state of deflation. Never seems to do much harm.

That good deflation will be thing of the past...

[SpontaneousOrder]

Nothing wrong with deflation. Just use negative interest rates.
It's only an ogre because it would break the current ponzi economy.

[BrilloPad]

Imagine a world with deflation.People hold off before buying stuff. People have more money, less debt, and are less likely to be wage slaves. They might even start to realize that Christine LeGunge is a useless 2@ who just wants to enslave the masses.

Dreadful.

[OwlHoot]

Imagine a world with deflation.People hold off before buying stuff. People have more money, less debt, and are less likely to be wage slaves. They might even start to realize that Christine LeGunge is a useless 2@ who just wants to enslave the masses.

Dreadful.

Nonsense

People who hold off before buying stuff prevent the people who make or import the "stuff" from earning any money

[Kanye]

Imagine a world with deflation.People hold off before buying stuff. People have more money, less debt, and are less likely to be wage slaves. They might even start to realize that Christine LeGunge is a useless 2@ who just wants to enslave the masses.

Dreadful.

Exactly - deflation is only bad because it reduces the assets of banks, rich companies, and very rich individuals.

For normal people it's either good or doesn't really impact us. I would take a massive dose of deflation at the minute to avoid the need to take on so much crippling dead for a house.

I can understand why we try to avoid it but it's really not the end of the world.

[OwlHoot]

Exactly - deflation is only bad because it reduces the assets of banks, rich companies, and very rich individuals. ...

So what all those detestable cigar chomping fat cats need is a healthy dose of inflation or better still hyper-inflation

[SpontaneousOrder]

Nonsense

People who hold off before buying stuff prevent the people who make or import the "stuff" from earning any money

You like credit bubbles then?