But paying $5000 for a 486-DX2 66MHz desktop in 1992 meant I could do things then (i.e. time preference) that I couldn’t do if I waited until now to buy a $300 netbook that’s probably 30x more powerful (according to the bogomips I could quickly google). (Which is almost exactly what borrowing is: spending more in total to have what you want sooner.)

People still buy what they need during a deflationary period; they’re just more cautious because they’re compensating for the waste of malinvestment during the inflationary period.

Seamus: better it be unbelievable pain, rather than inconceivable pain.

“He didn’t fall?! Inconceivable!“

Wallace Shawn should not delve into economic forecasting if that clip is, in the least, revelatory.

Canuck, while I find your argument to be cogent, I’ll go with these respected references for the meaning of the word in action.

Now,
I’d pay $14k for a fully loaded Corolla, out the door. Can I get this deal?

emergency

• noun (pl. emergencies) 1 a serious, unexpected, and potentially dangerous situation requiring immediate action. 2 before another noun arising from or used in an emergency: an emergency exit. 3 N. Amer. the casualty department in a hospital.

— ORIGIN Latin emergentia, from emergere ‘emerge’.

I note the use of the conjunctive ‘and’; not the word ‘or’, in Definition #1 above: also the Latin root.

The people who run the markets know how to game the system they wrote — this is bad insofar as it keeps the rich fat and the poor thin, but good insofar as it seeks to avoid true catastrophic collapse.

Inflation and deflation are simply a game played by bankers to pretend that our serfdom is to the money itself, instead of them. It’s so we don’t rise up and kill them.

Will they start dumping the Toyotas into the ocean?

oops – since these guys are off Malmo (I thought the Santa Monica pier was involved here; but that’s the octopus story) US anti-dumping does not come into play to prevent any drop to the clearance price.
Don’t know if the Swedes or EU play the “anti-dumping” card.

The cars might be made in the EU anyway. The Toyota Auris and Avensis are made in Britain and the Yaris is made in France.

It’s an emergency measure that we had to take due to storage space issues

(emphasis added)

Producers will have to lower their prices to what consumers will bear to clear inventory, same as it ever was.

(This goes both ways: such as with unemployment and the problems price floors cause.)

Sink ship, collect insurance money, profit!!!

Credit Default Swap much? ;)

See post #1.

Which is exactly the mindset the government’s trying to break. Until people feel comfortable spending, it’s hard to break the cycle… and until banks feel comfortable lending (to those who are clearly good risks, at least) people aren’t going to feel comfortable spending much.

I start to believe that the answer is for the government to threaten to get into the direct consumer/business loan biz, which would put a serious scare into the banks…