Reply #59: Think you meant to conclude that "the 1930s were much

[coalition_unwilling]

harder than the 1970s". Thank you for pointing out that the Fed has been largely combatting the scary threat of a deflationary spiral since 2008 with only limited success to show so far. (This is the Fed's 'good' an earlier poster demanded - the Fed regulates growth and contraction in the money supply.)

Your post also captures a larger truth. People who owned houses during the 70s did not do badly at all from the high inflation, as their housing values tended to keep pace with and even exceed the annual increase in CPI. Inflation chiefly hurt those on fixed incomes. Even when stagflation was at its worst during Carter's term, unemployment peaked at roughly 7%. Contrast that with January, 1933, when adult unemployment crested at 25% and there was definite price deflation.

Thanks for doing what you can to counter the Fed-o-phobia so often manifested here by folks who porbably could use a course or two in introductory economics.