This caused a reversal of the former positions of advantage and disadvantage on the part of debtor and creditor respectively.

The purchasing power of a 3 per cent annual interest on notes and bonds has been offset by the decrease in the purchasing power of the principal of the debt.

The burden of the average debt began relatively to decrease.

A wide field for enterpriser's profits was opened up by the rapid displacement of prevailing prices in all quarters of the industrial world.

The price of manufacturer's products rose in advance of the rise of costs of many raw materials and especially of the labor costs of manufacture.
The average enterpriser's gain was the average wage-worker's loss.
Wages (and salaries), as nearly always in the case of a change of price levels, moved more slowly than did the prices of most of the commodities which are bought with wages, thus causing great hardship to large classes living on comparatively slowly moving incomes.[19] Extremes meet, and these classes include both those living on passive investments, and those dependent on their daily labor for a livelihood.
Thus we escape the evils of a rising standard of deferred payments, only to meet those of a falling standard.