How do inflation and deflation distribute risk between different groups of people? You should be able to explain this with reference to the examples of the 1896 Presidential debate and to the recent and ongoing deflation in Japan.

The most important one we talked about is the differential effects that unanticipated inflation or deflation has on debtors and creditors. If prices rise, then debtors have to give up fewer goods in order to repay any given dollar debt. Inflation thus makes debtors richer in real terms, and creditors poorer. Price deflation has the opposite effect
The 1896 Presidential election in the US was much conerned with the effect that price deflation was having on farmers and the working class, who tended to be debtors. Democrats wanted to see some inflation to ease the debt burden, and this meant that they wanted to get the US off the gold standard it was then on.
Japan has suffered a period of moderate deflation since 1999. The consequence of this was to raise the real burden of debts owed by businesses. 2001-2 has consequently seen a big rise in bankruptcies, to the highest levels since 1984.