The only way you can get any work done with a rope is by pulling on it.

Last summer I was talking to a family member, who at one time had worked as an analyst for the New York Federal Reserve Bank ( the big one in the country that handles all the foreign exchange).  We were talking about the federal deficit and what the Federal Reserve Board was doing on the easing of credit.  This is the comment he made: the Federal Reserve Board's tools for fighting deflation are very limited.  He compared it to pushing on a rope.  The Federal Reserve Board's tools for fighting inflation are much better, which he compared to pulling on a rope.  He said the Board's policy generally is that they would rather fight inflation than deflation.