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Last week, I highlighted some of the ideas of Australian economist Steve Keen in my post, “Steve Keen and the spectre of terminal debt.”  Keen is of the Minsky camp and he believes that an unsustainable debt bubble has build up in the industrialized world which can only be brought to heel through a ‘debt [...]

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This entry from Gary Shilling comes via John Mauldin’s site InvestorInsight.com where he highlights commentary from some of the best economic thinkers. Shilling, who correctly predicted problems in residential real estate in the US, is in the deflation camp.  He thinks the US will be a slow growing economy prone to recession and high unemployment [...]

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The list of countries with deflation is growing by the month.  We have Spain, Switzerland, Britain, Ireland.  Now add Germany.
German consumer prices fell for the first time in 22 years in July, official figures have shown.
Prices fell 0.6% in July from a year earlier – the first fall since March 1987, when they declined by [...]

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In talking to the FT’s Gillian Tett, Hugh Hendry of The Eclectica Fund makes the hilarious metaphor of China as Santa Claus bringing gifts to a world constrained by excessive Western government debt issuance.  But, Hendry thinks the Asian surplus countries are the most exposed and most vulnerable because they are excessively dependent on foreign [...]

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In the clearest signal yet that we are still in a potentially devastating global deflationary spiral, The Riksbank, Sweden’s central bank and the world’s oldest central bank, has effectively cut interest rates to minus 0.25% and has started a program of quantitative easing a.k.a printing money. These are the most dramatic moves yet by a [...]

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This post is from Niels Jensen of Absolute Return Partners.  I have featured his monthly newsletter a number of times on Credit Writedowns (here’s the link to the last one, hilarious title).  Jensen is very good.
Visit www.arpllp.com to learn more about Absolute Return Partners and to sign up to receive their free monthly newsletter by [...]

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Of late, there have been a lot of worries about he potential for inflation in the U.S.  Marc Faber is the most noted pundit in this regard. Over-the-top comments he made back in May about hyperinflation in the U.S. may have been a catalyst for all of the inflation talk. See my post Marc Faber: [...]

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The real worry right now should be deflation, as we have not yet beaten back all of the ill deflationary effects of the financial crisis.  Nevertheless, a growing number of market participants see inflation as a longer term worry.  With unemployment high, a cost-wage push will not be part of that equation.  Nevertheless, increases in [...]

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Nearly a month ago, back on May 5th, I highlighted some testimony by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke before congress in a post labelled, “Bernanke expects recovery later this year“.  In his testimony, Bernanke used the phrase ‘Scylla and Charybdis’ to describe the Federal Reserve’s policy challenge regarding deflationary and inflationary forces.  I would like [...]

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So we can put a check by Paul Kasriel’s name for inflationistas because he has come out today with a report saying he believes it is inflation over the medium term which is the greatest risk to the economy.
I will not keep you in suspense. I believe that the greater risk for the global economy [...]