Another wave of global inflation is far from inevitable. But there are good reasons to think inflation will be structurally higher and more volatile over the next decade than the last
Starsky and Hutch were big in the 70s when inflation rates were similar to those of today
Are we heading for a 1970s re-run?
Inflation has only been falling for a matter of months across major economies, but the debate surrounding a possible “second wave” is well underway. Social media is littered with charts like the ones below, overlaying the recent inflation wave against the experience of the 1970s.
These charts are largely nonsense; the past is not a perfect gauge for the future, especially given the second 1970s wave can be traced back to another huge oil crisis. But central bankers have made no secret that nightmares of that period are shaping today's policy decisions. Policymakers are telling us they plan to keep rates at these elevated levels for quite some time.
Rewind 50 years and not only did inflation fail to return to prior lows in either the US or the UK after the initial 1974 spike, but both countries saw at least one additional spike over subsequent years. Germany fared better, but wages did respond to the second oil crisis, helping to push inflation up again.
The lesson was that for a second wave to really take off, you need a catalyst and an economic environment ripe for inflation to take hold.
The twin oil price shocks in the 1970s fell on a US economy that was already running hot, a byproduct of persistent US trade and fiscal deficits that grew through the 1960s, aided by the often loose monetary policy of then-Federal Reserve Chair Arthur Burns. That excess demand helped end the Bretton Woods system of fixed currencies and the US dollar lost a quarter of its value between 1970 and mid-1973 as the agreement collapsed, amplifying the hit from higher energy costs. And all of this fell upon an economy that was much more manufacturing-centric than it is today, and it was also heavily unionised. Wage growth typically kept pace with inflation.
Back to today, the economy looks very different. But we think there are valuable lessons, as we explain in our full report here