Reply #8: Stagflation: A meaningless bogeyman term invented to scare people and shift blame. [View All]

[AdHocSolver]

Stagflation: a time of high inflation and stagnant growth. Do not understand that it has everything to do with corporate policies. You must believe that the corporations and the Fed are just as "helpless" to combat stagflation as anyone else.

The term stagflation is hogwash.

Inflation is caused by excessive debt, the loss of jobs to offshoring, which creates that debt (trade deficits), and greedy financial institutions which make risky loans and charge enormous interest rates on credit card debt to cover their losses on those bad loans.

Another cause of inflation is the use of ethanol in gasoline. Ethanol does NOT save oil. It creates a shortage of corn for FOOD for people and livestock. Reduced supply of corn for food means higher prices. The American public is again paying for increased profits for oil and agribusiness corporations.

The U.S. economy is stagnant because all the new jobs created by the corporations are in China and India, rather than in the U.S. The economy was stagnant in the 1980's because American jobs were effectively being shipped by the multinational corporations to Japan, Korea, and Taiwan.

The solution to stagflation is good old protectionism for American jobs. The "protectionism" we currently have through NAFTA, the IMF, the World Bank, and the Fed is for corporate profits. Until Americans wake up to how this economy works against their interests and exclusively for corporate profits, nothing will change.