Combining the two results (see chart) implies that while a tiny amount of inflation may indeed have benefits, the net effect is trivial and begins to diminish once inflation exceeds 2.5%.
A week after a sell-off skimmed froth from bubbly commodities markets, China reported a tiny decline in inflation.
As the universe underwent an exponential growth spurt called inflation, tiny quantum fluctuations in that soup expanded to gargantuan sizes, providing density variations that would seed the galaxies.
This seems to be true: the only bullet left in the chamber might be a QE3, but reasonable people tell me that sooner or later, the Fed's classic "even a tiny bit of inflation unleashes poltergeists" paranoia kicks in and the full employment mandate gets tossed on a fire.
In each case, the numbers are now up, although the gain in per capita disposable income, after adjusting for inflation, is a tiny 0.2 percent.
This "inflation" blew up tiny, random quantum fluctuations in the primordial plasma and fixed them as permanent features of the universe, which continued to stretch, and cool, at a more leisurely pace.
Bruce Steinberg, a senior economist at Merrill Lynch & Company, called the mistake too tiny to affect perceptions of inflation or economic growth but said it was "sort of amazing they could make a mistake like this".
Seeking to cope with chronic hyperinflation, Zimbabwe's reserve bank introduced a new $50,000 note, by far its largest denomination yet, but consumers and economists alike quickly judged the denomination too tiny for an economy where inflation runs 600 percent a year by official estimates and 1,000 percent by private ones.
Abu Dhabi, a producer of oil, can invest only a small portion of this surplus in its tiny economy, already plagued by inflation from aggressive government spending, and as a result has set up a series of investment funds to redeploy these assets overseas.
Today, the U.S. central bank (the Fed) tells us it thinks the economy is strong enough to warrant a tiny rate hike, and while inflation is low, people still believe it will be normal in the longer term.
