Stagflation is Back in the News

The word “Stagflation” seems to be popping up a lot in the media over the past few days. The NY Times' Krugman wrote a column about it yesterday that is not worth linking to. (Here is a good critique of the column though, http://www.qando.net/details.aspx?Entry=1613)

It was about last year this time that the media was enthralled with the word “stagflation” especially because job growth at the time was anemic. Here is how investopedia defines the term:

“When the economy isn't growing but prices are - not a good situation for a country to be in. This occurred to a great extent in the 1970s, when skyrocketing oil prices further slowed economic growth. The effects of inflation were made considerably worse by stagflation.”