One of the means for manipulating prices to cause deflation in the neo-classical economic era is to black box the process; to make it the exclusive domain of the commanders.

A way to see in the black is with inferential indicators, isolating the variable and then solving for it with the known values.

In the case of the peak price for oil indicating a high level of speculative demand were the stochastic indicators on the users of the commodity, for example. The oversold condition was never enough to suggest a fundamental cause for the overbought price of oil. User markets always behaved as though a big sell off was imminent, and it was.

The general inflation that results in a deflationary trend of the economy has been instilled. As the dollar strengthens with the reduction of a basic input cost, economic activity will increase and "capitalize" on the baked in high prices, enhancing the profit margin and the speculative value of the dollar and equities prices (a capital gain).

The cost of producing the capital gain (the surplused value), of course, is the rise in prices (inflation) and unemployment (reduced purchasing power), or stagflation--profits without growth that will be described as a recovery.

The winners and losers are in zero-sum and defines a person's participatory status in the economy--whether you are paying the economic rent or receiving it.