Regarding the author: J.W. Mason teaches economics at City University of New York's John Jay College and is a fellow of the Roosevelt Institute.
The economist John Maynard Keynes evaluated the relative risks of inflation and deflation a century ago, as the globe tried to get over a previous era of monetary instability.
He came to the conclusion that whereas deflation meant the poverty of labour and business, inflation meant "injustice to individuals.
If at all possible, you should stay away from both. However, given the circumstances at the time, deflation posed a bigger threat.
In a world of poverty, it is worse to cause unemployment than to disappoint the rentier.
We do not yet see outright deflation in 2022.