βIn short, the rate of price inflation in an economy comes from a combination of 1) money supply growth and 2) significant changes in productivity and/or resource abundance.
-Periods of fast bank lending or large monetized fiscal deficits (and thus rapid money supply growth) tend to create inflationary environments, while periods of fiscal austerity and/or private sector deleveraging events (and thus slow money supply growth or outright money supply contraction) tend to create disinflationary or outright deflationary environments.
-Periods of technological stagnation, societal dysfunction, the need for resiliency over efficiency, war, and scarce natural resources tend to all contribute to the experience of inflation due to their negative affects on the supply of goods and services. On the other hand, periods of technological improvements, labor specialization, the sacrifice of resiliency for efficiency, geopolitical and civic peace, and abundant natural resources tend to all contribute to the experience of disinflation due to their positive affects on the supply of goods and services.β