It was getting worse, rather than getting better. And so that rather infected people's thinking. You could not buy a house in those days without just assuming that the house was not only a place to live, but it was a good investment, because it was going to keep up with inflation or get ahead of inflation, and it was just - that was America. You bought a house, and it went up in price. Well, it's not bad if that's all that happened.
Housing is only one part of the economy.
When people begin anticipating inflation, it doesn't do you any good anymore, because any benefit of inflation comes from the fact that you do better than you thought you were going to do. Once you begin anticipating it, it no longer has any stimulative impact. In the short term, it's good for borrowers and not for lenders. And you get higher interest rates, and the interest rates keep up with the inflation. And in fact, human nature, they see inflation rising for a while, they begin anticipating still higher inflation.