Like cheap broadband, excess railroad capacity lost money for investors but spurred economic growth.
At the same time, a new force this column has termed the Cheap Revolution (e.g., the combination of cheap technology, excess capacity and Internet-based pricing arbitrage) is exerting a powerful deflationary gravity.
Cheap or excess money leads to credit bubbles, asset inflation (e.g. housing in the USA up to 2007) and mal-investments.
"But the window for harvesting this bonus may close soon," with a "profound impact on development": "Excess cheap labor supply, which is one of the major factors driving China's economic miracle, will no longer be available".
Urban city dwellers are increasingly surrounded and tempted by cheap calories in excess.
The EU common agriculture policy enables, if not compels, EU farmers to dump their excess but cheap farm produce on African markets, thus forcing African farmers to sell their products at a loss or leave the market altogether.
Some crass detailing sabotaged the Mondeo's premium pretence at the launch three years ago, notably an excess of cheap, silvery plastic, the option of fake wood and some cluttered switchgear.
Last year, the consumption of coal in Europe rose by 6%, according to Birol, which was a result of an excess of cheap coal on the market because of less consumption in the US, while the price on carbon emissions under the EU's emissions trading scheme – supposed to discourage coal – was too low to have any effect.
But Amy Sparano, senior vice president of sales and merchandising of It Figures!, cautions that with skimpy shapewear (as in the cheap, not-effective kind), excess fat can be pushed up over the waistband of a bikini pant, for example, creating the "muffin top" look.
Excess: £80 Cheapest "lifetime" policies: Animal Friends £14.73.
