America, Our Long Inflation Nightmare Is Over: Kathryn Edwards

A recession typically ends when the economy stops shedding jobs, leaving in its wake a hole in the labor market. The economy is not considered to be fully recovered from the downturn until the lost jobs are regained. Simple enough. So what does it mean to recover from a spike in inflation rates?

That’s a harder question to answer given that the US has suffered fewer bouts of inflationary periods than recessions in recent history. Before the pandemic-era surge in consumer prices, the last time inflation took off was in the late 1970s, or more than 40 years earlier. And although ...