World stocks tumble on US deflation fears

By PAN PYLAS - Nov. 20, 2008

LONDON (AP) - World stock markets slumped Wednesday amid concerns about sinking consumer prices in the U.S. and the shaky future of the Big Three U.S. automakers.

Wall Street capped the day with a late-session downturn that sent major indexes to their lowest levels since March 2003. The Dow Jones industrial average shed 427.47 points, or 5.07 percent, to 7,997.28...

The U.S. Labor Department reported that consumer prices fell 1 percent in October from the previous month, the biggest fall since records began in 1947. While lower prices might be good for the consumer, they can dent corporate profits and stock market valuations.

Lower prices also raise the threat of deflation, a prolonged bout of falling prices that hasn't been seen in the U.S. since the Great Depression of the 1930s...

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Gasoline prices are still retreating and now--horror of horrors--we are told that dreaded deflation--falling prices for consumer goods across the board--may set in for the first time since the Great Depression.

So why am I not crying more loudly than I am at these prospects? 

As a retiree on a penurious fixed income well below the poverty level, what with cheaper foodstuffs and gasoline, I may soon be able to dispense with my outlaw brand canned beans and 17-cent noodles occasionally. 

Shucks, I may even be able to take a rare drive in the country on a Sunday afternoon for the first time in decades!

But I know my joy is probably occasioned by a failure to understand something.  I must go read the Wall Street Journal for a spell to learn why I should be sad that my seemingly dead end old life has become momentarily easier.

A dear and departed relative of mine who grew up during the Great Depression used to tell me regularly that what this high flying, grossly materialistic nation of consumeristic excesses needed was another good depression. 

To tell y’all the truth, I'm beginning to think she was right.

D. Grant Haynes