It’s inflation you should fear, not deflation

House prices and the RPI may still be falling, but deflation isn't what we should be worrying about. John Stepek explains why the big danger now is inflation, and what this means for your investments.

It's grim out there. Unemployment is rising, house prices are falling, and everything's generally awful.

So if you've got a relatively secure job, a variable rate home loan, and you drive regularly, you might be feeling a bit confused. You might even be feeling a bit guilty. Because the truth is, you're possibly feeling quite flush at the moment.

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John Stepek

John Stepek is a senior reporter at Bloomberg News and a former editor of MoneyWeek magazine. He graduated from Strathclyde University with a degree in psychology in 1996 and has always been fascinated by the gap between the way the market works in theory and the way it works in practice, and by how our deep-rooted instincts work against our best interests as investors.

He started out in journalism by writing articles about the specific business challenges facing family firms. In 2003, he took a job on the finance desk of Teletext, where he spent two years covering the markets and breaking financial news.

His work has been published in Families in Business, Shares magazine, Spear's Magazine, The Sunday Times, and The Spectator among others. He has also appeared as an expert commentator on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, BBC Radio Scotland, Newsnight, Daily Politics and Bloomberg. His first book, on contrarian investing, The Sceptical Investor, was released in March 2019. You can follow John on Twitter at @john_stepek.