Lynn Turgeon writes: >>Passell also concludes that most people seem to win as a result of overall deflation just as most people seem to lose from overall inflation and therefore tend to go along with fighting inflation as a national policy. No wonder there is inertia among Japanese policy-makers when it comes to reversing deflation.<< How can Passell say such things?? How can he talk about "most people"? Debtors win in (unanticipated) inflations and lose in (unanticipated) deflations. Creditors get the flip side, losing in (unant) inflations and winning in (unant) deflation. The Japanese deflationary hegemony seems to me to be similar to that of the 1920s (on a more global scale), partly due to the power of the creditors and partly a reaction to past inflation. BTW, the Economic Policy Institute's home page (http://epn.org/epi/) has a feature called "Reading Between the Lines" where they comment on current journalistic economics in the semi-official NY TIMES and Washington POST (such as Passell's columns). Sometimes the EPI's views seem infected by the influence of the Marquis de Sawicky ;-), but it's good to see a different slant that that of the establishment consensus. (NB: Doug Henwood has his own home page, which I'll let him tell you about.) in pen-l solidarity, Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Econ. Dept., Loyola Marymount Univ. 7900 Loyola Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90045-8410 USA 310/338-2948 (daytime, during workweek); FAX: 310/338-1950 "It takes a busload of faith to get by." -- Lou Reed.
