Higher inflation that forces the Federal Reserve to 'taper' its asset purchases has concerned investors of late but that worry came, at least, with the promise of strong economic growth.
Now though, the question could be whether recent poor jobs data and a surge in consumer prices bring back talk of the 'misery index', a gauge crafted by Republicans in the 1970s to describe the combo of rising prices and high unemployment .
Globally too, the picture is getting worrying, with supply chain bottlenecks and raw materials costs weighing on production and cooling the blistering economic recovery after last year's slump. Data on Monday showed output slowed at Chinese factories in April while retail sales underwhelmed.