Newswise — As the so-called "Great Recession" drags on amid scattered signs of recovery, economists continue to debate whether deflation or inflation poses the greater threat.
While some haven't made up their minds, Robert Whaples, department chair and professor of economics at Wake Forest University is unequivocal.
"Deflation? If you've never heard of it, you aren't alone," Whaples says. "My parents just celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary and they've never lived through a single year of deflation. Once the U.S. left the gold standard during the Great Depression, deflation was basically consigned to the waste bin of history. With the recent ballooning of the money supply and massive borrowing by the federal government, it will be hard not to have a noticeable uptick in inflation in the not-too-distant future."
Whaples is the former director of EH.Net, the Web site of the Economic History Service, and co-editor of the book Historical Perspectives on the American Economy and editor of The Encyclopedia of Economic and Business History. His Modern Economic Issues course, a series of 36 half-hour lectures on issues ranging from global warming and Social Security to Wal-Mart and obesity, is available on CD and DVD from The Teaching Company. His article "Do Economists Agree on Anything?" is the most frequently downloaded article published in the journal The Economists' Voice.
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