[MittFan08]

“For example, printing TONS of money reduces the value of each dollar therefore requiring more dollars per item.”

It depends on what happens to the money after the federal reserve or other central bank prints it. The Bank of Japan started printing money by the boatload in 2001 to combat their deflation, but it had very little effect because the Japanese commercial banks were unwilling to lend the money and it just piled up in their reserve accounts and didn’t enter the Japanese economy. Several years later, Japan is easing back into deflation again.

You can print all the money you want, but if just piles up in a vault somewhere and doesn’t enter the economy then it has little effect.

[Xenophon450]

This is the crux of the inflation/deflation argument I have witnessed on multiple forums. I believe when deflation becomes a large enough issue, the Government will step in with all of it's wisdom and mandate forced lending. And that is when inflation will begin to occur. I could see Obama doing something like this, in conjuncture with congress and the Fed.

And then there's the stimulus checks...