This Economic Paradox Nearly Took Down Three Presidents. Is Donald Trump Next?
The economic crisis of the 1970s was a disaster for multiple presidents. It could be worse for Trump.
In the leadup to President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” on Wednesday — when he announced sweeping new tariffs on all the United States’ international trading partners — economists and financial analysts started using a word that will give hives to those of you over the age of 60.
Stagflation — “the s-word rippling through Wall Street and Main Street,” as Axios put it earlier this week — is a calamitous anomaly whereby the economy manifests low growth and high inflation at the same time. Anyone who remembers the 1970s will recall that it caused an economic crisis in the United States, ushering in a turbulent era of high prices, interest rates and unemployment — and considerable instability and pain.
