Return on Software: Maximizing the Return on Your Software Investment

Chapter 13. Inflation and Deflation

Think about the last time you bought some ordinary thing, such as a movie ticket or a gallon of gasoline. How much did you pay for it? Now think back to the first time you can remember buying that same kind of thing. How much did you pay then? Was it the same price both times? Probably not—the more time that passes between purchases, the less likely it is that the prices would be the same. Simply put, prices change over time. Although there are short-term (on the order of days or weeks) changes in some prices, such as gasoline and groceries, these changes happen too fast and are usually too random to worry about in business decisions. This chapter is concerned with long-term (on the order of months or years) ...