The example of Japan, where there has been deflation for well over a decade, had not yet occurred in 1982. Of course, they might just have expected the inflation still to be coming. They would not be alone in that view. It is certain though that Hogan would have been watching all these developments with close interest.
He would have been recognising certain things that he could have broadly predicted, and I suspect he would have said so with that very dry turn of phrase he had. He would also, surely, have been observing things that would have surprised him, and he would have been thinking about how his view of the world needed revision.