It is no secret that the developed world has been enjoying improved standards of living and higher disposable incomes on account of very stable and even declining prices of most consumables in their shopping basket year after year for almost 20 years. Inflation adjusted, the real prices of food, clothing, and general merchandise were probably lower in the US in 2007 than they were in 1990. This "miracle" was made possible largely by developing countries, mainly China, which became the manufacturing shed for the developed economies. With low wages and poor labour rights, state subsidies, poor or negligible environmental compliance, and access to primary inputs and raw material within the region, year after year it was possible for the affluent nations to import more and more at lower and yet lower prices from an ever expanding list of eager suppliers located in China, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Vietnam among many other small and medium poorer countries in other continents. The Indian government itself supported this export activity with multiple schemes that poured billions of dollars of direct and indirect subsidies to the exporters. Many in India would be surprised that at the peak of the thrust to support exports at any cost, there were some companies in India that earned more tax-free profits that their actual turnover for the year (a balance sheet impossibility as many will intuitively argue)
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