by Adam Sharp
Daily Reckoning
Have you ever been caught in a set of gnarly waves at the ocean? The kind where you get smashed by a breaker, come up for air and there’s another big one waiting for you at the surface?
This is a solid metaphor for inflationary periods. They don’t happen like a single big tsunami.
They are typically processes that play out in stages over a decade or more. Policymakers try various fixes, and most fail or only provide temporary relief.
Let’s take a look at the three waves of America’s 1970s inflation…