"cheap" is "bad" because it encourages "hoarding". Instead, those that run the economy would much rather put you on a treadmill of devaluation, which forces you to keep working harder (better unemployment figures!) and consume. Basically short shrift the working class of the value of their income - it's a backdoor paycut for workers[0]. It also forces the middle class into investing directly or indirectly (through pension funds, 401ks, etc) in the stock market, which is great for the ̶r̶i̶c̶h̶ economy and socializes the downside of entrepreneurial risk while letting entrepreneurs keep the upside.
[0] Don't take my word for that, it's in the words of nobel laureate Paul Krugman: http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/13/the-case-for-hig... "Yet when you have very low inflation, getting relative wages right would require that a significant number of workers take wage cuts. So having a somewhat higher inflation rate would lead to lower unemployment, not just temporarily, but on a sustained basis."
That inflation means decreased real wages is elementary and doesn't need a source support the statement. It completely misses the point, however.
What is needed to have a strong, growing economy with increasing prosperity for more than the one percent isn't high or low inflation, but stable price levels that makes it possible to plan for the long term and make investments into productivity and efficiency. When witch doctors in the Fed, ECB and BoJ arbitrarily manipulate interest rates and thereby inflation, they promote speculation over investment and move wealth to the 0.01%.
There weren't stable prices by any means from 1800-1900 but would you say there wasn't a growing economy? The US even was able to support the freeing of slaves and their entry into the marketplace as laborers over that term.
[0] Don't take my word for that, it's in the words of nobel laureate Paul Krugman: http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/13/the-case-for-hig... "Yet when you have very low inflation, getting relative wages right would require that a significant number of workers take wage cuts. So having a somewhat higher inflation rate would lead to lower unemployment, not just temporarily, but on a sustained basis."