In 2002, former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernankegave a speech titled “Deflation: Making Sure ’It’ Doesn’t Happen Here.” Now, the severity of the recession brought on by the novel coronavirus crisis could make that task very hard. The Labor Department on Tuesday reported that overall consumer prices fell 0.8% in April from March—the largest monthly decline since December 2008—putting the index up just 0.3% from a year earlier. Core prices, which exclude food and energy prices to better capture inflation’s trend, fell 0.4%,...

Source: Wall Street Journal May 12, 2020 16:19 UTC