Synopsis
Oil prices are also rising now, jumping higher this week after talks between OPEC and its allies failed to reach a deal to ramp up production — but the situation is not as dire as the disruptions half a century ago.
AP
Most economists believe that the forces driving the current surge in inflation will ease in the months ahead.
The last time big government spending, supply chain shocks and rising wages threatened to keep inflation meaningfully higher, President Joe Biden’s top economic adviser was in diapers.
Jump forward half a century, and some aspects of 2021 look a little bit like a do-over of the late 1960s and the 1970s, which many economists think laid the groundwork for the breakaway inflation that took hold and lasted into the 1980s. At a time when prices have popped and debate rages over how quickly they will moderate, those comparisons have become a hot topic.