[31835843]

>This is the first time in my life (34 yo) that price changes have been so large that they’re apparent to me.

We lived through a unique time in history, and that unique time has lasted for our entire adult lives. I’m also 34. I graduated college right when the low interest rates were juicing the economy. But the party had to come to an end sometime.

Ask your parents what it was like in the 1970s. Oil shocks, interest rates at 15%. History rhymes.

[TacticalCoder]

> Oil shocks, interest rates at 15%. History rhymes.

Except the G-20 average public debt in the 70s was like 30% of the GDP.

We cannot go to interest rates at 15% with countries having 100%+ public debt (as is the case nearly everywhere in Europe for example).

[wombatpm]

We’ll they can, but the trick is to not add new debt and pay the old debt with inflated dollars. Welcome to austerity 2.0

[31835843]

Good point. While the interest rates are “high” now (prime rate is 4.75?) that is actually a regression towards the mean, and definitely not 1970s hyperinflation territory.

I wonder though — given that we can’t go to that 15% rate (because then servicing public debt would be too expensive), what other tools do we have left to tame inflation?