• acargitz@lemmy.ca
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    3 days ago

    What we need is degrowth and a transition away from capitalism.

  • circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org
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    4 days ago

    I’m glad this got press.

    Such slowdowns tend to be good for the average person.

    They’re bad for speculators, investors, shareholders – mostly rich people who are too moneyblind to see that endless growth is untenable. To those people, I say: fuck you.

    • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
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      3 days ago

      Your thinking of disinflation, not deflation…

      Ask the average person how great the Great Depression really was to live through.

      • hark@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Deflation was a symptom, not the cause, of the great depression.

  • wewbull@feddit.uk
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    4 days ago

    Up until the 20th century it wasn’t uncommon to have cycles of inflation and deflation.

    https://iamkate.com/data/uk-inflation/

    The reason deflation is so highly feared is because it increases the value of debt. In particular, government debt. China owns large parts of the debt of the US. Deflation makes them stronger.

    • NIB@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      Not exactly. Deflation basically slows down the economy. If you think your money will worth more tomorrow, then you are less likely to invest/spend them.

      But the whole purpose of money is to be used. Money is a tool, the oil that facilitates trade and keeps the economy going. And while too much money(oil) can overheat the economy(inflation), too little money can straight up bring the economy to a halt(deflation).

      Deflation, even in small amounts, is more dangerous, thats why ideally you prefer having a small amount of inflation.

      • cley_faye@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        If you think your money will worth more tomorrow, then you are less likely to invest/spend them.

        I see this argument being thrown around a lot. How does it work when a fair share of people are not doing investment at all, and are unable to spend the bare minimum to live, to begin with?

        I ask this because the argument of “people will spend less” only works with people that spend extra money on unnecessary things, which is becoming less and less of a thing.

        • FourPacketsOfPeanuts@lemmy.world
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          4 days ago

          Because no matter what proportion of the population they are, many many businesses are kept afloat by discretionary spending. Be that TVs, laptops, clothing, grooming, beauty products, heath+fitness, cars, holidays, tourism, travel, even house moves.

          These are all things that can be ‘put off a little while’ if there’s serious prospect of your money going further. Which, as OP says, slows the economy and makes deflation worse… The thing that suffers in the meantime is cash flow in these businesses (and dependent businesses) and an extended period of slow trade with no prospect of it ending would see many of them go to the wall. See: covid. Had governments not acted it would have naturally led to deflation. That’s not the reason they acted though, they pumped money into the economy because long before deflation/inflation would have been a worry bankruptcy would have cut deep into thousands of regular ‘good’ businesses. (So they over inflated and then we had globally crap price inflation but still the risk of an economy wide shut down was that bad…)

          • hark@lemmy.world
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            2 days ago

            Technology is inherently deflationary in that superior versions come out for the same or even less money all the time yet people still regularly buy TVs, phones, laptops, etc.

        • ayyy@sh.itjust.works
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          4 days ago

          Humans are not rational actors. We never have been and we never will be. There are different gradations of “necessary”.

      • Zorque@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        “The economy” in this instance being a playground for the rich.

        People won’t stop paying for food or rent just because their money might be worth a little more tomorrow. They won’t skip buying minor entertainments just because maybe their meager salaries might be worth a little more next week.

        Deflation is poison for the owner class, not the working class.

        • David J. Shourabi Porcel@lemmy.world
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          4 days ago

          “The economy” in this instance being a playground for the rich.

          People won’t stop paying for food or rent just because their money might be worth a little more tomorrow.

          Indeed, people won’t stop paying for everyday necessities, but the economy consists of more than just individual people: there’s the state and there are businesses too. You conflate the latter with “the rich”, which is generally true for corporations, but corporations are not the only form of business; there are cooperatives, partnerships, and others which can distribute profits more fairly. In any case, deflation affects all businesses, including fair ones, and the state itself. As another commentator suggested, money is meant to change hands and should never become an asset worth holding.

          • c10l@lemmy.world
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            4 days ago

            money is meant to change hands and should never become an asset worth holding.

            Forgive my admitted ignorance. If money should never become an asset worth holding, how can inflation be better than deflation for the working class?

            Proportionately, the rich hold a lot more money assets than the poor, who generally don’t hold any or very little.

            • frezik@midwest.social
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              4 days ago

              If you have debt, inflation eats away at that debt. If you’re paying 5% per year on that debt, but inflation goes up 3%, you’re actually only paying 2% on that debt. That’s good for people who have debt, and bad for the people who invested the initial money for that debt. With deflation, it’s the opposite.

              This assumes your wages go up with inflation, though. Over the long term, that does tend to happen, but there are certainly periods where that is not true.

              • ubergeek@lemmy.today
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                4 days ago

                Over the long term, that does tend to happen

                Not in the US. We haven’t seen a real pay increase since the early 1980s.

                • frezik@midwest.social
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                  4 days ago

                  That became something of a meme post-2008 financial disaster, and it was true then. It’s not true anymore. That’s what I meant by it not being true in certain time periods. It depends on where you put the start and end dates.

                  As of now, median wages are significantly better off in real terms than any time in the 1980s: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LES1252881600Q

            • David J. Shourabi Porcel@lemmy.world
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              4 days ago

              If money should never become an asset worth holding, how can inflation be better than deflation for the working class?

              It’s deflation that turns money into an asset worth holding and thus slows down economies. Too much inflation isn’t good either, for different reasons. A slight and stable inflation is the sweet spot.

              Proportionately, the rich hold a lot more money assets than the poor, who generally don’t hold any or very little.

              Indeed, the rich do proportionately hold a lot more money than the poor, but it isn’t much. The rich mostly have shares in corporations, bonds and real estate.

              Inflation is generally worse for workers than for the rich because the latter have more pricing power. If both your living expenses and your income after taxes increased by 20%, you’d even end up with more money than before, assuming your living expenses were a fraction of your income. Unfortunately, prices haven’t risen equally; the cost of living increase has generally outpaced real wage growth. The rich have been able to set higher prices; workers haven’t been able to extract high enough wage raises.

              Neither high inflation nor deflation are good for workers. What workers need is pricing power through strong unions and political support.

              • ubergeek@lemmy.today
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                4 days ago

                A slight and stable inflation is the sweet spot.

                Only if you enjoy living on debt.

                • David J. Shourabi Porcel@lemmy.world
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                  4 days ago

                  My understanding is that a slight and stable increase in the money supply is beneficial regardless of the monetary system in use, because it incentivizes economic activity. That said, I’m only somewhat familiar with our current fractional-reserve banking system and don’t know enough about other systems, historical or hypothetical, to present my understanding as fact.

          • Zorque@lemmy.world
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            4 days ago

            That just shows how broken the system is, though, doesn’t it? It’s geared towards benefitting the haves over the have-nots. Yes, it probably hurts the people further down the line from the shareholders and board members… but mostly because they can’t countenance not having their numbers going up. So they pass along losses to the people who can tolerate the least.

            I’m sure you’re just approaching this from a sterilized, clinical approach “that’s just the way things are”… but it’s not particularly beneficial to people to consider things exclusively that way.

            • David J. Shourabi Porcel@lemmy.world
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              4 days ago

              I think we both agree that capitalist logic is inherently extractive, exploitative and generally unhealthy. What I’ve been trying to point out is that we should not cherish deflationary tendencies in China or seek deflation in our own economies as a solution of sorts to the cost of living crisis, but rather pursue the power to increase our wages to at least match our ever rising productivity. In my opinion, unionizing –hard as it is– is more feasible than changing our monetary system –necessary and desirable as that would be– or overcoming capitalism.

          • ubergeek@lemmy.today
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            4 days ago

            You conflate the latter with “the rich”, which is generally true for corporations, but corporations are not the only form of business; there are cooperatives, partnerships, and others which can distribute profits more fairly.

            And if those other types of business don’t place “Profit maximization” as their primary focus, then a deflationary period wouldn’t be bad for them, either.

            Again, it’s only bad for people with debt. And the more debt you have, the worse delfation is for you.

            Debt, is really only “good” if you are a corporation. Because debt lets you spend a load of money that ain’t yours, and getting the working class deep into debt is a good way to ensure you have a decent slave labor force.

            • GorgeousWalrus@feddit.org
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              4 days ago

              Complete layman’s take on deflation, but wouldn’t trading basically stop with deflation?

              Say I buy a product for 4$ and the next day due to deflation I can only sell it for 3$, why would I then go and try to trade said product?

              It would be bad to have anything on shelf for a prolonged period. Food would probably not be affected due to its short shelf-time, but hardware stores, electronics, basically anything else would have the risk of significant losses. These stores would simply close, no?

              That also extends to global trade - big cargo ships are sailing for weeks before they can distribute their goods. The whole time the products would loose value.

              Probably I’m wrong, but if that’s true, deflation would really make the shit hit the fan.

              • hark@lemmy.world
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                2 days ago

                Say I buy a product for 4$ and the next day due to deflation I can only sell it for 3$, why would I then go and try to trade said product?

                That $3 is worth as much as that $4 was now because deflation made the value of the dollar go up. So the only change is that “number go up” didn’t happen on a purely psychological level. If your trade provides value then you can trade for more value.

                • GorgeousWalrus@feddit.org
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                  2 days ago

                  True, the sentence about the items loosing value is incorrect.

                  However, my argument is still valid, why would I go and buy the thing in the first place, if I just could have waited for today and still have 4$? I would have „gained“ a dollar by doing nothing instead of taking the trouble of procuring the item.

        • atzanteol@sh.itjust.works
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          4 days ago

          They won’t skip buying minor entertainments just because maybe their meager salaries might be worth a little more next week.

          Have you never seen somebody wait for a sale to make purchases? Or cut coupons? “The poor” frequently put off purchases to save some money.

          • theonlytruescotsman@sh.itjust.works
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            4 days ago

            Only nonessential purchases. The poor generally don’t have a choice to not pay rent in the US, you can get evicted after being 3 days late in most US states.

            • atzanteol@sh.itjust.works
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              4 days ago

              Yes, that’s what I’m talking about. Do you think the lower class only spends money on food, rent and gas? Some may but there are a lot of “non rich” people who buy nonessentials.

              • theonlytruescotsman@sh.itjust.works
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                4 days ago

                As someone in the lower class, yes. A decade ago you might have had a point, but unless they’re maxing out credit cards no one below median income is spending on non essentials.

          • Zorque@lemmy.world
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            4 days ago

            Not because of deflation, but because they’re looking for “The deal”. More akin to the dopamine inducing tricks many microtransaction games use these days.

        • whoisearth@lemmy.ca
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          4 days ago

          Shower thought. Economists by nature are professional dick riders to anyone with hoards of cash be they individuals or governments.

      • ubergeek@lemmy.today
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        4 days ago

        Deflation, even in small amounts, is more dangerous, thats why ideally you prefer having a small amount of inflation.

        This is only accurate if you measure economic success by “Corporate profits”.

        Deflationationary phases are very helpful for the working class, as their dollar now buys MORE things. Like food. And housing. And health care.

        • dondelelcaro@lemmy.world
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          4 days ago

          Deflationary periods may be helpful to those with large amounts of cash or cash equivalents, which generally isn’t the working class. Wage growth outpacing inflation helps the working class more.

          • ubergeek@lemmy.today
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            4 days ago

            Wage growth outpacing inflation helps the working class more.

            Except, by design, that will not happen, not for longer than a few quarters or so.

            Why do you think there is a push to get people back in the office?

            • Passerby6497@lemmy.world
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              3 days ago

              Why do you think there is a push to get people back in the office?

              Because the corporate realty market is a bubble, and companies have to find a way to justify big spends if they can’t get out of a lease, and plenty of corporate landlords can’t let people out of their leases because then their buildings would be underwater and likely forclosed?

        • JWBananas@lemmy.world
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          4 days ago

          Deflationationary phases are very helpful for the working class, as their dollar now buys MORE things. Like food. And housing. And health care.

          What kind of braindead take is that? The working class? The same working class that majorly lives paycheck to paycheck and can’t even afford an unexpected $500 expense?

          What dollars do you think they are going to have in a deflationary economy after they get laid off?

          • Zorque@lemmy.world
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            4 days ago

            You know in what form those paychecks generally come in? Cash, so their paycheck is now literally worth more without wage increases (which aren’t horribly stable for those generally loving paycheck to paycheck).

            • JWBananas@lemmy.world
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              4 days ago

              If they still have a paycheck, sure. But historically, deflation leads to unemployment.

              • hark@lemmy.world
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                2 days ago

                You’ve got that backwards. People get laid off, can’t buy things, then prices go down because demand is lower.

                • JWBananas@lemmy.world
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                  2 days ago

                  It’s not just consumer spending that influences inflation,/deflation but also institutional spending. The consumer price index is a lagging indicator. Decreases in institutional spending precede unemployment and the eventual reduced demand for consumer goods and services. And increases in the fed rate (and/or other forces which cause the cost of borrowing money for institutions/investors to rise) generally precede that.

          • ubergeek@lemmy.today
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            4 days ago

            The working class? The same working class that majorly lives paycheck to paycheck and can’t even afford an unexpected $500 expense?

            Yes, that working class. You know the people whose pay has pretty much been frozen in time since the 80s, even though the cost of everything is always going up faster than the paycheck they get?

            What dollars do you think they are going to have in a deflationary economy after they get laid off?

            Depends. I mean, I’m not going to offer solutions to try to make an exploitive system friendlier to the wage slaves… I’d prefer not having wage slavery anymore.

            But, perhaps, we need to guarantee everyone the right to the basic requirements of life? Then we don’t have to make sure billionaires get more billions, just so they can try to survive the hellscape we have created?

            • JWBananas@lemmy.world
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              4 days ago

              But, perhaps, we need to guarantee everyone the right to the basic requirements of life? Then we don’t have to make sure billionaires get more billions, just so they can try to survive the hellscape we have created?

              Sure. But that is outside of the scope of your original take and in no way validates it.

              • ubergeek@lemmy.today
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                4 days ago

                Its not outside of the scope of “Demanding infinite growth isn’t sustainable”…

                • JWBananas@lemmy.world
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                  4 days ago

                  Yes, every time you move the goalposts, you change the scope.

                  But sure, I’ll bite, again.

                  What does infinite growth have to do with deflation? You don’t have to have one or the other. You can also just have stagnation, which is arguably more sustainable than the unemployment caused by deflation.

        • Raiderkev@lemmy.world
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          4 days ago

          “Deflationationary phases are very helpful for the working class, as their dollar now buys MORE things. Like food. And housing. And health care.”

          Shhh can’t be having that. Don’t worry, we beat inflation. Everything is just more expensive now. Deal with it.

          • Wanderer@lemm.ee
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            3 days ago

            Their dollar buy more until the company folds as the economy goes to shit.

      • banana_lama@lemm.ee
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        4 days ago

        Yes and no. If deflation is at 1% or 2% investing your money should have significantly higher returns. What it does is make people more risk adverse.

      • bassomitron@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        They’re not entirely wrong about it increasing the value of debt and that being undesirable to some governments, though. I agree with you as well.

      • HubertManne@moist.catsweat.com
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        4 days ago

        I agree on the money thing. I view money like potential and kinetic energy and its only in use that it has real value and at rest it basically has potential value that will only be determined when used. It annoys me the government only does half of what keynes advized. The downturn activity and never do the good times activity.

    • David J. Shourabi Porcel@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      China owns large parts of the debt of the US. Deflation makes them stronger.

      I don’t follow you here. How does deflation in China make the debt of the US stronger? Am I understanding you wrong?

      If the renminbi appreciated over time against the US dollar, dollar-denominated debt held by the People’s Republic would yield less and less, wouldn’t it?

      • wewbull@feddit.uk
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        2 days ago
        • Inflation makes the purchasing power of a dollar smaller
        • Deflation makes the purchasing power of a dollar larger

        I owe you $100. Over time the value of that $100 debt goes down with price inflation. You charge me interest to make up for this fact and make some profit also.

        If prices deflate the value of the $100 debt goes up, but you’re still going to charge me interest. When I pay you back, not only can you buy more with the $100 than I could when I borrowed it, you’ve charged me for the privilege.

        • David J. Shourabi Porcel@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          Thank you for expanding on your point. What I did not and still do not understand is the following part of your original comment:

          China owns large parts of the debt of the US. Deflation makes them stronger.

          Deflation in China –that’s where deflation might occur or even be occuring– would not make the US Treasuries held by China more valuable, would it? Only deflation in the US, with the dollar appreciating, would have that effect, right?

          • wewbull@feddit.uk
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            1 day ago

            The price of goods going down is not contained to one country. We have global markets. Deflation would be global.

            • David J. Shourabi Porcel@lemmy.world
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              The price of goods going down is not contained to one country. […] Deflation would be global.

              That contradicts both present reality and future expectations as far as I understand both.

              In the past two years, China has been grappling with deflationary tendencies at the same time that much of the world has been experiencing extraordinary inflation.

              China’s current deflationary tendencies stem from a combination of relatively low domestic demand and an ongoing decrease in exports. This decrease in exports was mostly caused by US protectionism, which is set to expand in both rates and scope under Trump.

              Looking forward, the divergence I aluded to –deflation in China, inflation elsewhere– seems poised to continue. Further protectionism and the looming tariff war –not only with China, but possibly with Canada, Mexico and others– are expected to both fuel inflation in the United States and further reduce imports of Chinese goods. That would strengthen deflationary tendencies in China unless the government pulls off a stimulus package for their domestic economy more effective than the ones deployed thus far.

  • BlameTheAntifa@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    While consumers can benefit from falling prices, persistent deflation can also lead to a downward spiral for spending and investment.

    This seems like an absolute win.

    • oce 🐆@jlai.lu
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      Until your company, your salary and your job start deflating too.

      • ME5SENGER_24@lemmy.world
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        The obsession with companies needing to post increasing profits every single year is frankly baffling. Let’s say a company makes X amount in profits in 2024, and everyone—employees, shareholders, stakeholders—are happy and well-compensated. Why should the expectation be that profits must increase in 2025, even if the company is already performing well? The only explanation that comes to mind is greed. It seems like the focus is less on long-term sustainability or fairness and more about feeding the insatiable hunger of CEOs and executives who just want more—more profits, more bonuses, more power. It’s as if they’re modern-day dragons, hoarding wealth for the sake of hoarding, rather than for the health of the business or the people within it.

        • SlopppyEngineer@lemmy.world
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          It’s how the financial system works. Money is created out of loans that need to be paid back with interest, and the money for that interest comes out of other loans made by other people. It creates an ever increasing mountain of debt, and it pushes businesses to keep growing to stay ahead of their interest payments. The ones that don’t are bought up by the ones that do. Naturally the most greedy and sociopathic float to the top in this system.

          And so you get the eternal search for more things to exploit to keep growing and more profit. These things are baked in at a fundamental level.

          • barsoap@lemm.ee
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            It creates an ever increasing mountain of debt

            No, it creates seignorage. Central bank lends money to bank so bank has a reserve so that it can lend book money, bank’s customer pays back loan, bank pays back loan, central bank made a profit. Profit is put into the state budget and thus re-distributed.

            If your business accumulates an ever-increasing mountain of debt then that’s a problem with your business, not the monetary system. You could, for example, not take on loans, or not more than you can pay off. I’d say that’s the smart thing to do.

            And the whole thing is necessary: Without the banks having to pay back more money than what they got from the central bank the central bank could not lower the amount of money in circulation which, during a recession, would mean uncontrolled inflation. That is why you see central banks raising interest rates when there’s inflation: So that they can mop up surplus money, so that the value of money stays stable. Similarly, during deflation they want to increase the amount of money in circulation so they lower the interest rate, might even turn it negative, or (this has been on the table for the Euro) even right-out transfer money into everyone’s bank accounts.

            This one thing (at least in the case of the ECB) is the sole purpose of the central bank and the monetary system: To make sure, as best as possible, that a sandwich tomorrow costs the same as it did yesterday. When the economy grows more money is needed to reflect the value in circulation or you’d get deflation, when the economy shrinks, less value is in circulation thus less money is needed or you’d get inflation. The central bank always has to adjust.

            …the target is 2% inflation instead of 0% because you need some wiggle room and some inflation is better than any deflation. The amount the central bank adds or subtracts from the monetary supply has no direct connection to the inflation rate, for that you have to take the actual economy into account, as said, if monetary supply tracks the economy perfectly, shrinking and expanding in response to it, there’s no inflation, and no deflation.

        • barsoap@lemm.ee
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          You can have inflation and lower profits, no issue there. The unit of account shifting in value has some, but ultimately little, impact on how much of the value-add companies keep for themselves, or how much their business expands or contracts. The same percentage of a less valuable unit of account is a larger number, but still the same percentage.

          People like when if their rent is suddenly a lower percentage of their wages, they don’t really care about the absolute numbers.

        • oce 🐆@jlai.lu
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          Unfair redistribution is an issue, but it’s a bit orthogonal from deflation issues. I think people expect to get opportunities, promotions, new jobs, raising salary etc. this works better with a little inflation.

          • ME5SENGER_24@lemmy.world
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            So long as the increases in salary outweigh the increases in inflation, sure. But that will never happen. The entire system is flawed. Debt will grow and grow and those holding the debt will pull the puppet strings and make those below them dance (and suffer).

            Companies need to ditch their boards. They need to delist from the stock market. They need to be 100% employee owned. Profits need to be set at a specific percentage of COGS.

            …but greed, greed never changes.

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            If a company isn’t profitable, during a delfationary period, we really need to examine whether or not that business should even exist in the first place, since it apparently is only sustainable if there is an unsustainable economic model supporting it…

        • David J. Shourabi Porcel@lemmy.world
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          Let’s say a company makes X amount in profits in 2024, and everyone—employees, shareholders, stakeholders—are happy and well-compensated. Why should the expectation be that profits must increase in 2025, even if the company is already performing well?

          Many of the products and services that businesses depend on will or might raise in price. This is by design; most central banks target a low inflation rate, often around 2%. Without an increase in profits, raising prices on inputs will eat away at a business’ profit margin.

          • ubergeek@lemmy.today
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            Many of the products and services that businesses depend on will or might raise in price.

            Many of those businesses shouldn’t even exist, to begin with. cough the entire ad tech market cough

            Maybe we should see increasing prices for energy… And let “the free and open market” fully control how much consumers pay for fossil fuels at the pump?

            raising prices on inputs will eat away at a business’ profit margin.

            Good.

            • David J. Shourabi Porcel@lemmy.world
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              Maybe we should see increasing prices for energy… And let “the free and open market” fully control how much consumers pay for fossil fuels at the pump?

              Although I’m all for letting free market advocates get fisted by the invisible hand they worship, high energy prices have arguably contributed to the wave of obnoxious populism sweeping the world. I’m not saying we should keep fossil fuels to cater to the angry and fearful; I’m saying the transition should be more managed, because the sudden economic disruption you suggest is politically fraught.

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        That would mean I need to work fewer hours, to buy the same things?

        If so, how is that bad?

        • oce 🐆@jlai.lu
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          Usually when a company has less work over a prolonged period, it’s not just going to reduce worked hours, it’s going to reduce the number of workers.

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            If peoples money is stretching further from deflation wouldn’t they be able to pay for more services giving more businesses more work?

            • oce 🐆@jlai.lu
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              If people think the price are going down they will wait more before buying anything not essential and a lot of our economy is not essential. Deflation is not only going to touch what you buy, it’s also going to touch what you or your company sells, reducing revenues.

    • vga@sopuli.xyz
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      Isn’t it great that we also have people who do know about economics?

      • PugJesus@lemmy.world
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        “The people are tired of experts” stupidity apparently knows no political borders.

        • ubergeek@lemmy.today
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          You can find an “expert economist” to paint you any picture you like. I mean, hell, we still have people in the US thinking trickle down economics is a rule that works. To the point it’s even flooded into the housing market, where people still believe that building luxury housing with tax dollars is a way to create cheap housing.

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            Okay, but the only economists who believe in trickle-down bullshite are Austrian School clowns who aren’t taken seriously by the discipline as a whole. Even the extremely pro-free-market Chicago School thinks it’s bunk. It would be like pointing to the 2% or so of climate scientist denialists as proof that there’s serious dissent as to the nature or seriousness of climate change inside of the discipline, when, in reality, there isn’t. It’s just politically convenient to pretend so.

            • ubergeek@lemmy.today
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              Okay, but the only economists who believe in trickle-down bullshite are Austrian School clowns who aren’t taken seriously by the discipline as a whole

              Well, they are taken seriously by… Every politician.

              It would be like pointing to the 2% or so of climate scientist denialists as proof that there’s serious dissent as to the nature or seriousness of climate change inside of the discipline, when, in reality, there isn’t. It’s just politically convenient to pretend so.

              May I remind you who drives economic policy? Checks notes… Politicians.

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                I mean, I’m not trying to say that morons and swindlers don’t have influence over the real world, I’m just saying that legitimate experts are generally trustworthy with regards to their field of expertise - if not necessarily in presenting the correct view, in at least presenting a supported view, and trickle-down is anything but. A fucking zombie theory only given life by horrific amounts of dark money, that makes everyone in economics academia retch when it enters the room.

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                  Legitimate economic experts are still using the assumption that the world has infinite resources to be exploited, and therefore, we should have infinite growth…

                  So, color me skeptical on whatever the “economic experts” state. Because they also state privatization and commodification of social interactions is “Good actually”… Those same experts have “gifted” us enshittification.

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              Not all experts are equal. Climate science is a hard science with decades of data and evidence backing it up. Economics is a soft science with policy recommendations based on politics, running a feedback loop where the rich boost policies that benefit themselves.

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    I think the usual issue with deflation that people will wait for prices to keep going down and therefore keep buying less which feeds the deflation.

    • ubergeek@lemmy.today
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      People buying less, ie being more risk averse, and not wanting to take on debt, is a net benefit for everyone. Buying less means less ecological impact. Being more debt averse means fewer wage slaves.

      The only people who suffer from “buying less” are corporate owners.

      • oce 🐆@jlai.lu
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        Definitely agree on the ecological advantage, but the current economical system that provides most of the jobs of people here would deflate, people would lose jobs. Less human activity will always be better for ecology, but there’s probably some activity we want to keep to make our lifes good.

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          Kinda wild we can be guilted into buying more because some folks won’t help others unless they profit.

          If only we could all use less and that be the good thing that it obviously should be.

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      It’s one of those vicious cycles - it’s really hard to stop once it starts.

      Also, bear in mind that China’s recent economic growth has been mainly internal consumer driven (external infrastructure investments have slowed down noticeably as belts are tightened) so while they aren’t as fucked as America would be they could see a dramatic rapid decline.

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      There’s also the fact that debts increase in relative value over time, therefore discouraging people taking out loans for various purposes (mortgages, starting businesses, etc.), which was a major reason for the protests against the gold standard in the US around the late 1800s - see the Cross of Gold speech.

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    I mean, it’s a fair question for a political leader to ask his economic advisors, no? Pretty sure Obama would have asked his advisors the same question back in 2009.

    The issue, by the way, is a lot less settled than a lot of people think. Macroeconomics still seems to do a surprisingly bad job at understanding the links between inflation, interest rates, and economic activity, beyond giving some rough guidelines.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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      Obama would have been president for one year in 2009 and I still would hope he understood the problem with deflation.

      Xi Jinping has been in power for over 12 years now.

      • cyd@lemmy.world
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        Fears about persistent deflation in China are relatively recent. It’s come up now because of the live question of whether the government should engage in a big fiscal stimulus (the same debate the US went through in 2009).

    • ubergeek@lemmy.today
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      Macroeconomics still seems to do a surprisingly bad job at understanding the links between

      This is because Macroeconomics isn’t a science. Its gamblers attempting to create rules on “how to win at gambling” when everyone knows the only winner in gambling is the house.

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    Deflation has a good chance of forcing a stop to endless consumerism - and that will at least be good for the climate. It will cause havoc to the current economic system though, and that in turn could make things worse for investments into green tech.

    So … yeah.

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    I can tell you what. States like Japan and USA running budget deficit for decades managed to build 120-260% debt to GDP ratio. This will collapse the entire economies if currency starts deflating

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    Hey China, your senile leader is loose again.

    Better get him before genocides any Islamic subsets of the chinese population in order to staff sweatshop for temu and shein.

    Man, this whole “one china” thing seems to be racially based bs designed to generate profit off the backs of the people. Weird.

    • Pacattack57@lemmy.world
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      Ok but actually think about it. What’s bad about deflation? Poor people’s money becomes more valuable? Deflationary periods are bad in the US because companies don’t take care of their employees and lay them off instead of having 1 qtr with low profits.

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        Because when prices are constantly going down, it’s always better to wait until prices have gone down even more before you make a purchase.

        The result is that as deflation sets in, consumption also starts going down, which means profits and revenues go down, which means costs have to be cut, which ultimately leads to layoffs, and as more people become unemployed and have reduced income, what they are willing/able to pay for goods and services goes down.

        And now you have a deflationary spiral. These spirals tend to be hard to avoid under deflation and can lead to very high levels of unemployment.

        • Pacattack57@lemmy.world
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          Ok but why do costs have to go down? God forbid the company posts a flat earnings report for the qtr. your problem of thinking is that you are giving companies the benefit of the doubt. In economic down turns they are slow to lower prices but will raise them at the drop of a hat. They are quick to lay them off in bad times but slow to hire in good times.

          Corporate greed is why deflationary periods are so harsh.