http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2010/10/04/130329523/how-fake-money-saved-brazil

If this story is fake news, I apologize, but what I understand from it is that inflation is just as much a psychological problems as an economic one. I think this can be applied here.

Firstly, I assume that the largest current usage of STEEM/SBD is in curation/ reward. And even if not, it is more than important that we feel good about this, we feel that the platform is worthwhile. However, returns have fallen, users drift away, sometimes melodramatically, and we have this perceived problem. An economic solution? Let's turn on SBD! It's a kind of a job panic.

In the Brazilian situation, inflation was stabilised by the introduction of a fake currency. Prices were fixed, the numbers did not change, 10 FAKEs per hour. FAKEs continued to fall against the official fiat, but users became accustomed to stability until eventually the FAKE became the new currency (they chose a better name).

How can this be useful here? Display rewards in STEEM. An upvoted post in December will be receiving the same as an upvoted post was in August, and everybody will start to feel happy and positive, and this happiness and positivity will build community and attract the new users. That the real world value varies from month to month does not matter - aren't most users here for the long-term?

This first, but also, yes, there are economic (mathematical) difficulties. As @smooth suggests, suspend SBD payouts in the short-term. If someone wants SBD, they could buy it with STEEM.