From "The Economist"
  
                    The devaluation of everything
                      The perils of panflation 

           A virulent monster is dangerously out of control. 
                      Let us slay it together 

  PRICE inflation remains relatively subdued in the rich world, even
  though central banks are busily printing money. But other types of
  inflation are rampant. This "panflation" needs to be recognised for
  the plague it has become.
  
  Take the grossly underreported problem of "size inflation", where
  clothes of any particular labelled size have steadily expanded over
  time. 
  
    - Estimates by The Economist suggest that the average British size
      14 pair of women's trousers is now more than four inches wider 
      at the waist than it was in the 1970s. 
  
  In other words, today's size 14 is really what used to be labelled 
  a size 18; a size 10 is really a size 14. 
  (American sizing is different, but the trend is largely the same.)
  
  Fashion firms seem to think that women are more likely to spend if
  they can happily squeeze into a smaller label size. But when three out
  of four American adults and three out of five Britons are overweight,
  the danger is that size inflation reduces women's incentive to eat
  less. Meanwhile, food-portion inflation has also made it harder to
  fight the flab. 
  
     Pizzas now come in regular, large and very large. 
     Starbucks coffees are Tall, Grande, Venti or (soon) Trenta. 
  
  "Small" seems to be a forbidden word.
  
  _________________

  Inflation is also distorting the travel business. 
  
  A five-star hotel used to mean the ultimate in luxury, 
  but now six- and seven-star resorts are popping up as new hotels 
  award themselves inflated ratings as a marketing tool. 
  
  "Deluxe" rooms have been devalued, too: many hotels no longer 
  have "standard" rooms, but instead offer a choice of
  "deluxe" (the new standard), "luxury", "superior luxury" 
  or "grand superior luxury". 
  
  Likewise, most airlines no longer talk about "economy" class. 
  
     - British Airways instead offers World Traveller;
     - Air France has Voyageur. 
  
  Sardine class would be more honest. The value of frequent-flyer miles 
  is also being eroded by inflation: it is increasingly hard to book 
  "free" flights; they cost more miles, and redemption fees have
  increased. This was inevitable: airlines have
  been issuing so many miles (for spending on the ground as well as in
  the air) that the total stock is worth more than all the dollar notes
  and coins in circulation. Central bankers would shudder at such
  reckless inflationary policies—were they not themselves earning triple
  miles up in first class.
  
  _________________

  Some other strains of inflation have more serious economic
  effects. One example is 
  
     Grade inflation, the tendency for comparable academic performance 
     to be awarded higher grades over time.
   
     - In Britain the proportion of A-level students given "A" grades 
       has risen from 9% to 27% over the past 25 years. 
       Yet other tests find that children are no cleverer than they
       were. 
  
     - A study by Durham University concluded that an A grade today is 
       the equivalent of a C in the 1980s. 
  
     - In American universities almost 45% of graduates now get 
       the top grade, compared with 15% in 1960. 
  
  Grade inflation makes students feel better about themselves, 
  but because the highest grade is fixed, it also causes grade 
  compression, which distorts relative prices. 
  
     - This is unfair to the brightest, whose grades are devalued 
       against those of average students. 
  
  It also makes it harder for employers to identify the best applicants.
  
  _________________
 
  Fight the flab
  
  Employers are themselves distorting the jobs market with job-title
  inflation, which has recently accelerated because 
  
      a fancier-sounding title is cheaper than a pay rise. 
  
  Firms are awash with an excess of chiefs and directors, such as 
     - Director of First Impressions (receptionist) 
     - Chief Revenue Protection Officer (ticket inspector). 
  
  This is not just a laughing matter. Job-title inflation
  has economic costs if it makes the jobs market more opaque and makes
  it harder to assess the going pay rate.
  
  Inflation of all kinds devalues everything it infects. It obscures
  information and so distorts behaviour. A former German central banker,
  Karl Otto Pohl, compared inflation to toothpaste: easy to squeeze out
  of the tube, almost impossible to put back in. The usual cure,
  monetary and fiscal tightening, will not work for panflation. Women
  will never squeeze back into their old clothes unless they reject size
  inflation. 
  
  Instead, it is time for everybody to tighten belts (literally) 
  and fight all sorts of inflationary flab.