On Nov. 21, 2002, just two months after leaving Princeton University's economics department for a spot on the Federal Reserve Board, Ben Bernanke gave a speech in Washington on the topic of deflation.
At the time, stock prices had been falling for almost two years straight, inflation was just 2%, and there was widespread worry that it would drop into negative territory.
The specter of Japan, beset for a decade by falling prices and economic stagnation, was on the minds of many.
In his speech, Bernanke even brought up a far worse deflationary spiral - the Great Depression.