by Byron King
Daily Reckoning
If you’re under the age of about 60, you’ve never experienced stagflation. Back in the ’70s, everyone experienced what happened and people spoke openly about it. The term itself — “stagflation” — was a shorthand term to describe what was clearly and painfully a broad, national economic unwind.
Throughout the decade, the rate of inflation crept up and people saw it in daily life. Food became more expensive, as did gasoline, and certainly housing. Meanwhile, entire swaths of the legacy U.S. economy began to contract, particularly in job-rich, good-paying industries like steel and other metals, machine building, heavy equipment, autos and much more.
It was a shock to many Americans. For 25 years after World War II, and certainly through the 1950s and ‘60s, America experienced a generally solid economy.