These methods allow one to study large and small dusters using the same approximations. Most of the theoretical approaches have been based on empirical or semiempirical methods. The theoretical methods are frequently used to help in interpretation of complex experimental data. However, the interpretation of the results is often difficult. In recent years significant advances in experimental techniques allow one to synthesize and study atomic clusters of specified sizes.

Another example is a potential application of atomic clusters in microelectronics, where their band gaps can be adjusted by simply changing cluster sizes. One example is the catalytic activity of clusters of specific sizes in different chemical reactions. Because physical and chemical properties of clusters can be adjusted simply by changing the cluster's size, different applications of atomic clusters were proposed. However, recently it has become clear that many properties of atomic clusters can change drastically with the size of the clusters. For a long time it was thought that physical and chemical properties of atomic dusters monotonically change with increasing size of the cluster from a single atom to a condensed matter system. So, to my eye, the fun-house mirror is showing inflation.Atomic clusters are unique objects, which occupy an intermediate position between atoms and condensed matter systems. In a lot of industries, profitability will require higher prices. Restaurants and airlines that have to space customers out, take their temperatures and clean premises many times daily have to cover those new costs. In lots of industries, operating just got significantly more expensive and it will stay expensive until we either get a vaccine or get to herd immunity. To get people through the door, price cuts may make sense, which is why we’re seeing them in those hard-hit “menu and venue” industries.īut for the long run businesses need to cover all their costs. A Winnipeg restaurateur was on the news the other day talking about how if he can cover wages and supplies, it’s worth it to open even if he doesn’t cover all his costs. If you go back to Intro Econ, businesses produce in the short run if they can cover their variable costs. If I had to forecast, I’d say a lot of the deflation we’re seeing now is short-term. The problem is medical or regulatory bottlenecks somewhere along the production chain.įorecasting is always difficult but in uncharted (not unchartered!) waters it’s especially daft. The price signals are already urging increased production. Pumping more liquidity into those supply-restricted markets won’t get output delivered any faster. And we’ve got it because in many of those markets there are supply problems - almost Soviet-style supply problems (a problem I reflect on these days as I queue, like a Brezhnev-era Muscovite, outside supermarkets and pharmacies). But the problem in markets where people are actually spending is inflation. If you’re the Bank of Canada, what do you do? There is a lobby for printing all the money the presses can print. So while the official data tell us life is getting a little easier for consumers because the prices of historically important consumer goods are going down big-time, the data on the street tell us that with people’s earnings being squeezed and prices rising for the essential items they’re focusing on for the moment, life is getting harder. Our economic behaviour depends on our real, i.e., inflation-adjusted, costs and incomes. Which matters? Where people live is generally what matters. As for clothing and footwear: you can buy it online but most people still like to try things on - which hasn’t been possible since mid-March. In fact, they’re available precisely because no one can take advantage of them. (Living in hope, I did get my winter tires changed this week.) Traveller accommodation? Great deals are available but no one can take advantage of them.

Massive unemployment and lack of monetary and fiscal stimulus led to consistently falling prices all through the early 1930s - a comparison that, apart from being totally depressing, makes some people think we should torque the stimulus levers and crank up the Bank of Canada’s already smoking money machine.īut did you notice something about the big price drops quoted? For gas, for clothing and footwear, for traveller accommodation? These are all things nobody is buying. You know the last time prices fell like this? That’s right, during the Great Depression. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

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