by Calculated Risk on 7/23/2010 09:57:00 AM
Friday, July 23, 2010
Deflation Watch
Tech Ticker quotes Euro Pacific Capital's Peter Schiff:
"I don't know where anyone thinks prices are falling," Schiff says, citing rising prices for food, healthcare and energy. "I don't know where most people do their shopping but I don't see falling prices. To me, prices are rising."And from Reuters:
Safeway executives said the strength of that push on pricing caught them by surprise.Maybe Schiff should shop at Safeway.
"Deflation continues in price per item and is not expected to significantly improve until the fourth quarter," said Chief Executive Steve Burd, who oversees supermarkets including Safeway, Vons and Dominick's.
Burd acknowledged that retail deflation was much greater than expected in the second quarter and drove a decline in identical-store sales.
More seriously there is little deflation so far, but general deflation would be a bad bad thing.