Stagflation – there’s an ugly word. It’s a “portmanteau” term, where two things that you might not expect to be together fuse into a unity. In pop culture, think of Brangelina and Tomcat.
In the old canons of economics, stagflation is supposed to be impossible. Stagnation means a standstill in economic growth, and inflation comes from too many dollars chasing too few goods, the argument runs. How can you have all that chasing of goods without jobs and production moving up in turn? See, stagflation can’t happen.
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