Concerns about deflation are becoming widespread.\u00a0 Deflation is unwelcome because it makes loans more difficult to pay off and dampens economic vitality by encouraging hoarding of cash (some banks offer negative interest for deposits).<\/p>\n
There were concerns about the spectre of inflation back in 2008\/9 but they were held at bay until the recent drop in oil prices.\u00a0\u00a0 Now it is difficult to encourage the optimism required to stimulate economies because the fundamental dynamics have not been addressed.<\/p>\n
Job growth has not delivered livelihoods to people at the bottom of the pyramid.\u00a0 Growth in part time jobs has occurred as businesses\u00a0 fill needs without committing to the full cost of employment.\u00a0 This means people have a job but can barely save cash at the end of the week, if at all.<\/p>\n
While people in big cities might feel more optimistic the fundamental activity of economies around the world continues to be impacted by natural resource constraints and a top heavy, over-extended economic system.\u00a0 The recognition of deflation is another sign that global systems have not been repaired since the financial crisis.\u00a0 It is worrying.<\/p>\n
As a sustainability advocate, I also see things from another angle, which is that deflation is exactly what the world needs.\u00a0 The science of the biosphere is that there are too many people consuming too much for natural systems to bear.\u00a0 It has been possible because of oil (millions of years of sun’s stored energy) but the consequence has been deterioration of ecological systems leading to climate volatility, species loss, water shortages and the impending vicious cycle of habitat loss.<\/p>\n
We need success without growth.\u00a0\u00a0 That is possible, but we must all choose.\u00a0 Policy makers must be bold if they are to see the new paradigms that are possible.\u00a0 We must do more with less.\u00a0 We must respect and enjoy our connection with nature.\u00a0 As far as the banking system goes, it must continue to deleverage and become more transparent.\u00a0 The biggest unspoken hindrance to positive change is corruption which increases the higher up the pyramid you go.<\/p>\n
What to do?\u00a0 Vote for change with your wallet – buy clean food and other goods, eschew packaging and dross.\u00a0 Support people who make things.\u00a0 Educate everyone.\u00a0 Enlighten culture by supporting the values that everyone knows are right.\u00a0 And if you are at the top, turn your organisation upside down – that will make the world a better place.\u00a0 Good luck.<\/p>\n
The Economist published three articles on deflation this week, so it must be serious.\u00a0 Here they are:<\/p>\n
The high cost of falling prices<\/a><\/p>\n Worse than nothing<\/a><\/p>\n Feeling down<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Concerns about deflation are becoming widespread.\u00a0 Deflation is unwelcome because it makes loans more difficult to pay off and dampens economic vitality by encouraging hoarding of cash (some banks offer negative interest for deposits). There were concerns about the spectre of inflation back in 2008\/9 but they were held at bay until the recent drop …
Continue reading Deflation is everywhere. So what? It’s another crack in the wall.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6,27,22],"tags":[63],"class_list":["post-2624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","category-economy","category-living","tag-success-without-growth"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4hwcd-Gk","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2624"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2624\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2625,"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2624\/revisions\/2625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}