stagflation
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˌstæɡˈfleɪʃn̩/
ipa: /ˌstæɡˈfleɪʃ(ə)n/
rhymes: -eɪʃən
Forms: form: stagflations
Etymology: Blend of stagnation + inflation, generally thought to have been coined by the British politician Iain Macleod (1913–1970) in a 17 November 1965 parliamentary speech: see the quotation.
Senses: examples: text: We now have the worst of both worlds—not just inflation on the one side or stagnation on the other, but both of them together. We have a sort of "stagflation" situation and history in modern terms is indeed being made. There is another point behind the figures. As I say, production has fallen by 1 per cent. or ½ per cent.
ref: 1965 November 17, Iain Macleod, “Economic Affairs”, in Parliamentary Debates (Hansard): House of Commons Official Report (House of Commons of the United Kingdom), volume 720, London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 27 Apr 2024, column 1165:
text: As soon as we understand how involuntary unemployment can result from rational and well-informed individual behavior, it also becomes obvious how inflation and unemployment—which we once thought could not occur simultaneously—can be combined, as they have been in the recent stagflation.
ref: 1982, Mancur Olson, “The Questions, and the Standards a Satisfactory Answer Must Meet”, in The Rise and Decline of Nations: Economic Growth, Stagflation, and Social Rigidities, New Haven, Conn.; London: Yale University Press, →ISBN, page 8:
text: Since no one had the solutions to stagflation, [Jimmy] Carter, a fiscal conservative from the beginning, was thrown back to his personal bias and chose to elevate inflation to the nation's most pressing problem. […] More radical solutions to stagflation, such as direct wage and price controls or voluntary wage freezes to halt the wage/price spiral, were not thought to be socially acceptable. So, in the end the administration acquiesced to monetary stringency and watched its tenure recede.
ref: 1995, Anthony S. Campagna, “Conclusions and Legacy”, in Economic Policy in the Carter Administration (Contributions in Economics and Economic History; no. 171), Westport, Conn.; London: Greenwood Press, →ISBN, →ISSN, page 204:
text: Moving into the mid-1970s, America's economic performance suffered. Stagflation—inflation combined with minimal economic growth—eroded wages and profits, weakening business and consumer confidence.
ref: 2013, George R. Tyler, “Facing Reality”, in What Went Wrong: How the 1% Hijacked the American Middle Class … and What Other Countries Got Right, Dallas, Tex.: BenBella Books, →ISBN, section 1 (The Beginning), page 4:
text: The UK economy is suffering a nasty bout of stagflation and the prospects appear poor. That is the conclusion financial markets drew this week from yet more disappointing data, highlighting the weakness of the post-Covid economy and the persistence of high inflation.
ref: 2023 June 17, Chris Giles, Delphine Strauss, “Britain’s economic malaise”, in Roula Khalaf, editor, FT Weekend, London: Financial Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 21 Jun 2023, page 6:
text: Stagflation is a period of stagnant economic growth accompanied by persistently high inflation and a sharp rise in unemployment. While stagflation is quite rare—the U.S. has only experienced one sustained period of stagflation in recent history, in the 1970s—it’s become a more frequent topic of speculation. While it's unlikely that the U.S. economy is headed for another bout of stagflation, it's important to contextualize what's happening with the prominent episode of stagflation in the 1970s. […] Stagflation refers to an economy characterized by high inflation, low economic growth and high unemployment.
ref: 2023 December 11, Anna-Louise Jackson, “Is the U.S. Economy Heading For Stagflation?”, in Benjamin Curry, editor, Forbes, New York, N.Y.: Forbes, Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 21 Feb 2024:
text: "[Donald Trump's tariff proposal] is a prescription for the mother of all stagflations,” Larry Summers, Treasury secretary during the [Bill] Clinton administration, told Bloomberg TV back in June.
ref: 2024 October 30, Laurent Belsie, “Surprisingly, Wall Street doesn’t seem to care who gets elected. So far, at least.”, in The Christian Science Monitor, Boston, Mass.: Christian Science Publishing Society, →ISSN, →OCLC:
topics: economics
sciences
coordinate_terms: Trumpflation
biflation
deflation
hyperinflation
mixflation
slumpflation
glosses: Prolonged high inflation accompanied by stagnant growth, often with recession and high unemployment.
Derived terms: stagflationary
Related terms: agflation