On the Rick’s Picks web site yesterday, we featured a link to Mish Shedlock’s latest, lovely essay concerning deflation. We thought we could avoid getting drawn into the debate ourselves, but it was not to be: the topic touched off quite a firestorm in the forum that began with this introductory note on the home page:

“We stopped ‘debating’ the inflationists a while back simply because their arguments had become too bloody stupid to endure. Obviously, they have not been playing with a full deck, since they continue to obsess over the absolutely useless textbook definition of deflation – ‘a decrease in the money supply.’  Rather than have you become confused by all the drivel…concerning the money supply, which virtually no one [really] understands, we would rather that you see deflation for what it is [in our lives]: an increase in the real burden of debt.

“One of my ablest comrades-in-arms has been Mish Shedlock, a deflationist with more patience » Read the full article