Inflation is uncomplicated… most of the time. But sometimes economic conditions turn it into a vexing subject. The American mindset is conditioned to treat high/rising inflation as forever bad, and low and falling inflation as perennially good. Thinking in these terms is understandable, given the inflationary bias through time for a fiat monetary system. Most of the time the relevant analysis can be reduced to a simple rule: higher inflation is bad; lower inflation is good. The trouble arises in those rare periods when disinflation/deflation dominates. Recent history is one of those periods.