For those expecting lower prices due to a declining economy, the chart from the St. Louis Fed gives virtually no credence to that assumption. Apparently it would require an economic meltdown on a scale that is unimaginable.
Despite the methodology for determining the CPI being changed several times to make it look more favorable, you can see by the chart below that none of it made any difference. In a Keynesian and debt-as-money world, the only thing that really mattered was the near constant expansion of money and credit. Even the terrible recession of 1981-1982 and the global meltdown of 2009 had virtually no impact on the rise in prices. 6/2/14
Inflation is not a monetary phenomenon, at least not entirely. It is a government spending phenomenon. See the following article by John Hussman for reference: http://www.hussmanfunds.com/wmc/wmc100119.htm6/3/14