bouts of inflation

That created wild bouts of inflation and repeated devaluations of the currency.

And it goes back to the early 1970's, when after roughly four decades of stable interest rates, this country went through the first of several bouts of inflation.

Yet in an uncertain economic environment, the Fed's decision is a defensible move to ward off future bouts of inflation and bring order to volatile currency and financial markets.

D1) Chart/Graphs: "Rethinking Causes and Effects" Two prerequisites for past bouts of inflation - low unemployment and high capacity utilization - have now been present in the economy for nearly a year without sending prices shooting upward.

But Hong Kong allows investments to flow in and out freely and a free-market economy characterized in recent years by slow growth and falling prices, while China still controls investment flows, has many government-owned enterprises and has enjoyed rapid economic growth combined with occasional bouts of inflation.

It was during this period also that European colonization of the Americas began in earnest, including the exploitation of the fabulously wealthy silver deposits of Potosí in Upper Peru and Mexico, which resulted in great bouts of inflation as wealth was drawn into Europe from the rest of the world.