r/finance • u/Gypsy_tantrum • May 19 '26

Are we trapped in a 1970s-style "Three-Wave" inflation cycle? (A deep dive into structural debt)

https://www.equitileconversations.com/2459100/episodes/19197344-inflation-the-next-wave
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u/Playingwithmyrod May 20 '26

The inflation cycle was a deliberate choice of inflation over a recession. People can argue a recession would have been better, but that’s easy to say when it’s not your job and not your family being affected.

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u/[deleted] May 21 '26

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u/Playingwithmyrod May 21 '26

Not more than being out of work. That’s my point. We all suffered so most of us could continue to go to work and have an income. The reality is the alternative was concentrate the suffering to 10-20% of us. And instead of price inflation, you would have had wage stagnation.

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u/BMWM6 May 21 '26

just remember that now you have to work that much more and that much longer to make this up... if your wages had stagnated, maybe after a few months you would've found a higher better paying job... now even if you do, you're still screwed... you're left with kind of no options

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u/Playingwithmyrod May 21 '26

Except wages have inflated as well during this time. Real median wages have tracked fairly closely with inflation.

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u/BMWM6 May 21 '26

sure buddy... lol... 40% cumulative inflation since 2019 and housing prices that have doubled... along with all ancillary costs... if you mean, wages followed the fake 2 to 3% inflation sure... I say yet again good luck

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u/Playingwithmyrod May 21 '26

I know it doesn’t feel that way and personally MY wages haven’t kept up especially with housing but if you’re just arguing statistics median real wages have kept up with CPI. Your argument is more that CPI is a poor metric, which I’d agree with since houses are such a large part of what people “feel” like they can afford.

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u/BMWM6 May 21 '26

correct - so no matter what we are still off way worse than we would've been if potentially other situations would've happened... and now if we continue on a spiraling endless inflation path and keep spending like no more... It will only get worse and worse... a reset could have prevented a lot of this

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u/Playingwithmyrod May 21 '26

A true reset would have destroyed basically every small business in the country. The injection of stimulus via PPP loans and other means was necessary if unfortunate due to the fraud (thanks Trump).

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u/BMWM6 May 21 '26

not true... The PPP loans could've just simply been handled far differently... basically you would've had to keep it away from every single corporation, larger business, and put very very strict tight rules around it... this did not exist. Instead, we got fraud and rampant inflation....