Are we in deflation, but nobody wants to use the word?

[raccoon]

I'm not an economist, but it kind of looks like it.


Not grocery store prices, of course, but prices of some things, such as oil and houses.

[DireStrike]

1. Well those things WERE inflated

I guess deflation of inflated prices is still deflation...

[lapfog_1]

2. This decrease in the CPI is almost all due to gasoline price.

It has fallen off a cliff as the economy not only slows, but grinds to a halt.

[phantom power]

3. Discretionary goods/services are definitely deflating...

Fuel is temporarily deflating, but is likely to start rising eventually. The past couple years saw huge inflation rates in food/fuel/energy.

The Fed has been shoveling hundreds of billions of dollars into the economy. That is actually likely to lead to inflation, when the economy reaches its new equilibrium.

[HamdenRice]

4. I think so

I went to the supermarket last night and after months of rising prices, found that the prices of some things, like chicken quarters, are actually collapsing. Not that I'm complaining, but there was a steady rise in chicken prices, and suddenly some (not all) are plummeting toward 2001 prices. The gasoline bubble popped, but it's still expensive compared to late Clinton prices.

The trend seems to be that the energy companies and speculators were wringing everything out of us and they overreached precipitating an economic collapse which is causing a price collapse (ie deflation).

[Blue Meany]

5. I guess it depends what you are looking at...

For the last few years I have been trying to buy locally produced organic food as much as possible. At the beginning, it cost quite a bit more to do this; now it is saving me money most of the time, because grocery store prices have increased so much. I attribute this to inreased fuel costs. My understanding is that wholesalers absorbed some of these costs when gas prices were going up, but I assume they are recouping these now that gas prices have gone down. I think we may still be seing a delayed affect of high oil prices, which will be going up again soon enough.

[LeftHander]

6. Yes. Prices aren't going up....nt

[lib2DaBone]

7. I think that current Deflation is going to be a head-fake.....

...as we sink deeper into the depression during the spring and summer of 2009, and it becomes obvious that all the FED can do is print money to throw at the banks, inflation will come roaring back.

I hope people are not fooled by this short-lived pull back in gas prices. OPEC is cutting production every day.