http://www.zerohedge.com/article/whats-ben-gonna-do
excellent article here on all of helicopter ben's options in the fight against the BONE CRUSHING deflation. ya'know, coz hyperinfaltion is coming innit and buy gold bitchez
Would also recomend reading
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deflation just so you understand the basics of what we are talking about m'kay?
Most notably
"Deflation in Japan
Deflation started in the early 1990s. The Bank of Japan and the government have tried to eliminate it by reducing interest rates (part of their 'quantitative easing' policy), but this was unsuccessful for over a decade. In July 2006, the zero-rate policy was ended.
Systemic reasons for deflation in Japan can be said to include:
* Fallen asset prices. There was a rather large price bubble in both equities and real estate in Japan in the 1980s (peaking in late 1989). When assets decrease in value, the money supply shrinks, which is deflationary.
* Insolvent companies: Banks lent to companies and individuals that invested in real estate. When real estate values dropped, these loans could not be paid. The banks could try to collect on the collateral (land), but this wouldn't pay off the loan. Banks have delayed that decision, hoping asset prices would improve. These delays were allowed by national banking regulators. Some banks make even more loans to these companies that are used to service the debt they already have. This continuing process is known as maintaining an "unrealized loss", and until the assets are completely revalued and/or sold off (and the loss realized), it will continue to be a deflationary force in the economy. Improving bankruptcy law, land transfer law, and tax law have been suggested (by The Economist) as methods to speed this process and thus end the deflation.
* Insolvent banks: Banks with a larger percentage of their loans which are "non-performing", that is to say, they are not receiving payments on them, but have not yet written them off, cannot lend more money; they must increase their cash reserves to cover the bad loans.
* Fear of insolvent banks: Japanese people are afraid that banks will collapse so they prefer to buy (United States or Japanese) Treasury bonds instead of saving their money in a bank account. This likewise means the money is not available for lending and therefore economic growth. This means that the savings rate depresses consumption, but does not appear in the economy in an efficient form to spur new investment. People also save by owning real estate, further slowing growth, since it inflates land prices.
* Imported deflation: Japan imports Chinese and other countries' inexpensive consumable goods, raw materials (due to lower wages and fast growth in those countries). Thus, prices of imported products are decreasing. Domestic producers must match these prices in order to remain competitive. This decreases prices for many things in the economy, and thus is deflationary.
* Japanese style deflation: Deflation has been persistent in Japan for two decades due to very low unemployment rate in Japan for the very low GDP growth rate. If GDP growth rate decreases, unemployment rate should be increased since average annual household income can be maintained in that way. But Japan did not do that. Instead Japan maintained a low unemployment rate compared with other developed countries. Therefore, an annual Japanese household income has been decreasing for two decades. The solution of the Japanese persistent deflation is to give much more flexibility in the labor market.
In November 2009 Japan has returned to deflation, according to the Wall Street Journal. Bloomberg L.P. reports that consumer prices fell in October 2009 by a near record 2.2%.[11]"
hmm that doesnt sound familiar does it? nope.
What people like Dunecat don't realise is, hyperinfaltion is not the biggest thing to be worrying about.
People think of weimar hyperinflation and uther such BS which isn't even possible in the US. If you don'nt know why, i would brush up on what happens when you hold debt in another nations currency and your own currency starts to depreciate.
