I came up in the 1970s, the era of stagflation.
I was fortunate to be spared the worst of it. I lived most of the decade around Rice University. While everyone else in America was suffering, Houston enjoyed a boom. I didn’t drive regularly until I got a job that paid for it, in 1978. Even then I was young enough to bike everywhere. Houston is flat and youth can dodge cars.
Despite my penny-pinching, and that of my dear wife, the house we eventually found was less affordable than houses are today. This was because money cost money, a lot of money. We paid 12% interest, adjustable every 6 months. We half-expected to be paying 15% in three years.
By the 1980s inflationary expectations were built-in to the economy. Everything was expected to cost more because raw materials, starting with oil, were so dear. Stagflation meant a stagnant economy wracked by inflation.
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