It's Time to Consider Evasive Action on Inflation

There’s a first time for everything. My generation arrived in the workforce just as inflation was ceasing to be a serious problem (at least in much of the West). Since the early 1990s, consumer price inflation has stayed firmly under control. There have been undulations and oscillations, and times when the risk of inflation needs to be taken into account. But there’s never been a time when my generation of 50-somethings had to deal with inflation as something that’s real and matters. For people younger than me, the notion becomes ever more abstract and hypothetical. Anyone who knows any basic economics understands the concept, but it has ceased to be a driving force in politics or the economy. There have been plenty of other ills, but not rising consumer prices.

That’s over. Whichever way you look at it, official U.S. data suggest inflation is the highest in 30 years, and rising. It’s plenty possible, indeed likely, that this will prove a transitory phenomenon. But for now it’s real and undeniable, and we have to deal with it. Thus, a wave of people under 60 have discovered the delights of digging through the entrails of official inflation data. It’s made for a fascinating but confusing day.