Economist Mike Darda:
There’s nothing like a credit crisis to stop inflation in its tracks.
Headline inflation will fall markedly over the coming year as energy and food prices fall from the previous spike. But inflation could later resume when the panic-induced plunge in velocity picks up. The Fed more than doubled its balance sheet to more than $2 trillion in the last two months, and it will have to be vigilant to pare liquidity as panic hoarding goes away. An inflationary weak-dollar Fed caused most of the credit crisis in the first place as it juiced the oil, housing, credit, and foreign reserve markets. Today’s crisis, which happens to be temporarily disinflationary, is not an especially pleasant trade-off to bring down the price index. Better just to keep the dollar sound in the first place.
