Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Possible Deflation

While lower prices for products such as food and oil may be a relief when you first look at it, it could possibly an economic crisis known as deflation. The link below describes how extremely low consumer prices could signify an unstable economy. The passage talks about how deflation starts, which is established by real low demand for products, and what happens when deflation occurs. When deflation arises companies cut production, which leads to managers laying-off workers. Deflation is really hard to get out off. For example, deflation occured in Japan in early 1990s and are just now really getting out of it. For them these years were known as the "lost decade". The housing market is also declining, which lowers the chance for people to get loans. Deflation is a very scary thing and our economy should be concerned about it. Economists doubt the chances for deflation but we shouldn't ignore the fact.

http://money.cnn.com/2008/10/17/news/economy/deflation/index.htm