¶ … inflation is falling to levels not seen for years," Floyd Norris (2013) argues that there is a trend towards slow inflation growth in many Western countries. The author presents evidence in the form of inflation figures from the U.S., the UK, Japan, and the Eurozone. The author cites lower oil prices and slow growth in the price of durable goods as contributors to this phenomenon.
What needs to be separated here is the headline, which was not necessarily written by the author of the author (indeed, almost certainly not). Taking that away, the author is merely recounting some economic trends using publicly-available data. It is perhaps a little presumptuous of the headline writer to argue that inflation is falling around the world when the actual evidence presented is only from specific parts of the developed world. Nobody will dispute that there are the largest economies in the developed world, but there is no talk of inflation in other major Western economies like Canada, Australia or Switzerland, and there is no talk of major emerging economies either.
The reality is that many major economies are facing a long-term trend of slow economic growth. These economies are reaching a point of diminishing...
The author is not passing any judgment in this paper, and is not ascribing any qualities to the argument. What is needed from the author is some sort of context. It is important to understand what it means if inflation is stagnating. This is the core problem with this article - it starts a conversation without finishing it . The reader is left hanging, wondering what the point of caring about this issue is.
There is some macroeconomic evidence that inflation is sluggish in many Western countries, but this is not tied into anything that informs as to what an investor or business should. There are many ways to approach the issue of inflation, but none are discussed in…
