[philman_36]

I think that the hope is for war with Iraq to re-ignite inflation, much like it did under Johnson.
It's a sad day in America when one looks to the prospect of war to fix an economic crisis.
It has worked in the past so I shouldn't be too surprised.

[arete]

It's a sad day in America when one looks to the prospect of war to fix an economic crisis.

We wouldn't even be talking about Iraq if it wasn't for our poor economy. It only goes to show you how bad things really are -- which no one wants to admit to. They want us to believe that everything is okay here and the real problem is Saddam. Yeah right.

Richard W.

[austrianecon]

Unlike inflation which as Friedman once said (and I paraphrase): 'is strictly a monetary phenomenon', deflation can be influenced by many factors. Deflation, in the classical sense, was a tightening of the money supply through bank credit contraction, something we don't have to worry about right now. I personally think that we are in a slightly deflationary period due to increased productivity and cheaper imports. This is the type of deflation that was prevelent for roughly 120 yrs prior to the creation of the Federal Reserve System. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this type of deflation.