http://www.nu.nl/politiek/3937758/dijsselbloem-niet-bang-van-deflatiespook.htmltranslation:
Minister of Finance Jeroen Dijsselbloem is ''not quite worried'' about the 'deflation phantom' that haunts Europe.
Quote from tuesday at RTL Z. According to him, inflation is stable around 0,4 percent.
The European Central Bank has enacted measures to counter deflation - a process that makes money worth more and causes prices to decrease - and return Europe to a 2 percent inflation.
Dijsselbloem supports those efforts of the ECB and calls them prudent.
Massing
Deflation can lead to people and companies delay purchases because they expect prices to fall. This is bad for economic growth. Inflation, where money becomes worth less and prices rise, is beneficial for people, bussiness, and countries with large debts.
Dijsselbloem dit not want to judge the massing of bonds by the ECB. Politics should, according to him, withhold from commenting on the actions of the independent ECB, as lang as they stay within mandate. Massing of bonds is within mandate.
Ajax
Dijsselbloem also said in the interview at RTL Z that he has no problem with the 'state bank' ABN Amro sponsoring Ajax.
The bank, entirely in the hands of the state, does not have a ban on advertising and can decide independently how to work on brand recognition. Dijsselbloem did not know about the sponsorship and he doesn't think it's necessary for him to stay updated on such matters.
(Link to the following page with the title) "the dangers of deflation".
http://www.nu.nl/nugeld-overig/3805435/gevaren-van-deflatie.htmltranslation:
As a result of the low inflation in Europe, the European Central Bank (ECB) has taken measures to prevent deflation. What are the dangers of deflation?
Deflation means that inflation is below zero for a period of time. The prices will not rise, but fall.
This is dangerous because consumers will delay their spending. For example you'd delay the purchase of a car, if you expect that same car to be cheaper in six months.
When purchases are delayed, it has a large impact on the economy. A downward spiral will be created: shops sell less, which causes them to order less from their manufacturer.
The manufacturer can produce less and will need less employees. Those fired employees will have less to spend and will therefore spend even less money.
Interest
Deflation also causes the real interest to rise, which causes debt to increase in value. That's not only harmful for the people who are in debt, but also for the national debt.
Real interest is the interest after subtracting inflation. Under deflation real interest is therefore higher than nominal inflation. Companies will borrow less money to invest which causes another blow to the economy.
Inflation
In the netherlands the inflation lowered to 0,8 percent in may, according to the European index however inflation lowered to 0,1 percent. Which is lower than the 0,5 percent in the eurozone.
The ECB strives to get inflation below, but close to 2 percent. Because of the long time low inflation the ECB lowered their interest rates.
(this article links to another article on inflation, which will probably lead to even more propaganda)
TL;DR
they are stealing our money slowly over time by inflating it into oblivion and making it sound like they are doing us a favor.
There's jsut so much wrong with how our economy works today it's insane. We have an economy that's build on ideas that are either obsolete or were never right to begin with.
