DEFLATION (JUST A LITTLE BIT)

In America over the weekend it came out that

The prices of US goods and services, excluding food and fuel, fell last month for the first time since 1982…The closely watched “core” consumer price index fell 0.1 per cent in January, labour department figures showed on Friday, as prices for new cars and housing dropped from the previous month. 

While this is hardly shocking. It does bang home the point that we are not experiencing inflationary pressures and that spending has not picked up sufficiently for government spending to be cut back.