I was struck by the disparity in inflation results shown by https://www.visualcapitalist.com/cp/g20-inflation-tracker-august-2025/, with China being a clear outlier in global inflation performance. However, I struggled to take that data and visualize why deflation is generally regarded as economically destructive, or how. I think fiction is an underappreciated way to convey complicated topics, so here’s a story that tries to demonstrate the underlying mechanisms of deflationary spirals, also known as “Involution”.
LLM Disclaimer: LLM assistance was used in drafting this story.
I was struck by the disparity in inflation results shown by https://www.visualcapitalist.com/cp/g20-inflation-tracker-august-2025/, with China being a clear outlier in global inflation performance. However, I struggled to take that data and visualize why deflation is generally regarded as economically destructive, or how. I think fiction is an underappreciated way to convey complicated topics, so here’s a story that tries to demonstrate the underlying mechanisms of deflationary spirals, also known as “Involution”.
LLM Disclaimer: LLM assistance was used in drafting this story.