Is Stagflation the Winner?

Oh no! Is it going to be the 1970s all over again? Every time I go to the store I see rising prices. 

The inflationists have been predicting this for a couple years now. But the deflationists have counter-argued that an economy-wide wage-price spiral can't get going like in the 1970s because unions are too weak, too many of our goods come from China, and the housing industry is too weak.

The lessons of the 1970s have been forgotten, I fear. The American people are too sheep-like to protest rising inflation. They'll meekly submit, or be fooled by packaging gimmicks or phony statistics from the government. They'll simply have less to spend on many things, since a bigger fraction of their stagnant incomes is gobbled up by gasoline, home heating and cooling, food, medical care, college, and perhaps state income taxes in states like Illinois. The result will be stagflation.

Not only have oldsters forgotten the lessons of the 1970s, but an entire generation has grown up that has never experienced double digit inflation. You have to be 50 or older to really remember it. There are many bond traders and bond fund managers who are younger than that. 

The will to fight inflation simply isn't there.