Decrease and Inflation

noun

• A change downward.
  • usage: "there was a decrease in his temperature as the fever subsided"; "there was a sharp drop-off in sales"
  • synonyms: lessening, drop-off
• A process of becoming smaller or shorter.
  • synonyms: decrement
• The amount by which something decreases.
  • synonyms: decrement
• The act of decreasing or reducing something.
  • synonyms: diminution, reduction, step-down

verb

• Decrease in size, extent, or range.
  • usage: "The amount of homework decreased towards the end of the semester"; "The cabin pressure fell dramatically"; "her weight fell to under a hundred pounds"; "his voice fell to a whisper"
  • synonyms: diminish, lessen, fall
• Make smaller.
  • usage: "He decreased his staff"
  • synonyms: lessen, minify

• (v.t.) To cause to grow less; to diminish gradually; as, extravagance decreases one's means.
• (v.) A becoming less; gradual diminution; decay; as, a decrease of revenue or of strength.
• (n.) To grow less, -- opposed to increase; to be diminished gradually, in size, degree, number, duration, etc. or in strength, quality or excellence; as, they days decrease in length from June to December.
• (v.) The wane of the moon.

noun

• A general and progressive increase in prices.
  • usage: "in inflation everything gets more valuable except money"
  • synonyms: rising prices
• Cosmology) a brief exponential expansion of the universe (faster than the speed of light) postulated to have occurred shortly after the big bang. (
• Lack of elegance as a consequence of being pompous and puffed up with vanity.
  • synonyms: ostentation, ostentatiousness, pomposity, pompousness, pretentiousness, puffiness, splashiness
• The act of filling something with air. .

• (n.) The act or process of inflating or the state of being inflated, as with air or gas; distention; expansion; enlargement.
• (n.) The state of being puffed up, as with pride; conceit; vanity.
• (n.) Undue expansion or increase, from overissue; -- said of currency.

Inflation is a persistent increase in prices, triggered when demand for goods is greater than the available supply. Moderate inflation often accompanies economic growth, but the Federal Reserve Bank and central banks in other nations try to keep inflation in check, usually by decreasing the money supply when inflation heats up, making it more difficult to borrow. Among the more obvious methods used by the Fed are raising the federal discount rate (the rate the Fed charges member banks on loans) and/or the federal funds rate (the rate that banks charge to lend money to other banks overnight). That reduces the money available for investment and spending, since the banks, in turn, raise the rates they charge borrowers. Hyperinflation, when prices rise by 100% or more annually, can destroy economic, and sometimes political, stability by driving the price of necessities higher than people can afford.