Japan is off and running or so they say (for the nth time in 20 years). Yet inquiring minds will be quick to note Japan Deflation Concern Rises Even as Growth Quickens . The acceleration of Japan’s economy to the fastest growth pace in more than two years masked a slide in prices of goods and s ... Read more

In the face of mounting job losses with the only real demand coming from cash for clunkers and other silly stimulus programs doomed to fail, it should not be surprising to anyone for retail sales to drop. Nonetheless, Bloomberg notes the following surprise: Sales Unexpectedly Decrease as Job Losses ... Read more

Please join me at the Chicago Natural Resources Expo on April 24-25 for a discussion about gold, silver, hard assets, inflation, currencies (or whatever else is on your mind) and to meet with various natural resource company executives. For all the deflationists in the crowd, I am pleased to announ ... Read more

From the BLS: The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) increased 0.2 percent in March, before seasonal adjustment, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. The index has decreased 0.4 percent over the last year, the first 12 month decline since ... Read more

Previously I discussed some of the differences between inflationary and deflationary economic environments. I’d like to pick up where I left off, mention one challenging aspect of deflation, and talk a bit about which environment we’re experiencing. Read the full article ... Read the full ... Read more

We have become so accustomed to inflation that it is difficult to remember a past when prices were more expensive. Welcome to the age of deflation. Todays featured property is a 35% rollback that will probably drop further.   Asking Price: $325,900 Address: 61 Costero ... Read the f ... Read more

From the WSJ: GDP Shrank 6.2% in 4th Quarter, Deeper Than First Thought The U.S. recession deepened a lot more in late 2008 than first reported, according to government data showing a big revision down because businesses cut supplies to adjust for shriveling demand. ... The sharply lower revision ... Read more

In one of the more ridiculous Keynesian theories to date, Gauti B. Eggertsson at the New York Fed comes to the conclusion Tax Cuts Will Deepen The Recession . Simple logic would dictate that letting people and businesses keep more of their money would be a good thing but amazingly Eggertsson comes ... Read more

Global contractions are very rare. However, it's increasingly clear we are going to have one. Consumer spending continues to weaken worldwide, and as goes consumer spending, so goes exports from the goods producing nations, especially those in Asia. Exports plunge in China, Japan, and South Korea ... Read more

Over at VoiceofSanDiego.org I've put up a two-parter explaining why I believe a protracted period of deflation is an exceedingly unlikely outcome. No Deflationary Spiral Forthcoming, Part 1 No Deflationary Spiral Forthcoming, Part 2: Counterpoints (These articles comprise a very slig ... ... Read more