Inflation America! Gold, Great Depression, Nixon, Volker & Free Banking

From 1879 to 1914, as America’s industrial revolution was booming, inflation was basically zero!

IN THE NEWS:

Inflation Reached 7.9%

Besides Russia’s war with Ukraine… there is another development that’s dominating our news — inflation, which reached 7.9% in February. (see WSJ, 3/10/22).

In his State of the Union Address, President Biden said this: “I think I have a better idea to fight inflation: Lower your costs, not your wages.” See White House for transcript.

Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds delivered the GOP rebuttal, during which she states

“We’re now one year into his presidency, and instead of moving America forward, it feels like President Biden and his party have sent us back in time — to the late 70s and early 80s. When runaway inflation was hammering families,…” See NYTimes, 3/1/22. See also NPR, 3/1/22, for full text.

Are the years between the late 70s and early 80s a good comparison point for our inflation now? What were home mortgage interest rates back then? How often have we experienced double-digits inflation in our history?