Here We Go Again: 1970's Woes Are Back

I can't remember a whole lot of good happening in the 1970's.  I do remember disco, the rationing of gas and the long lines at the pump.  Auto manufacturers were down sizing everything.  The war in Vietnam was getting a bit old, costly, and people were deeply divided about the respect for our troops.  The US Dollar was taking a dump, food and energy prices surged, home loans were scarce and running around 17%, and a previously unknown, promising change, Jimmy Carter, made his way into the White House and exasperated everything bad about this time frame.  Oh!, and Dick Cheney was involved.

"Here we go again. Oil prices have roughly quintupled since 2002, once again the result of strong global demand running into limited global supply. World grain prices have doubled in the past year. Just as in 1972, the recent run-up in food prices is aggravated by climate shocks. Australia's drought and Europe's heat waves put a lid on grain production in 2005-06. Even the politics are strangely similar. In both 1974 and 2008, an unpopular Republican President, battling historically low approval ratings, was distracted from serious macroeconomic policymaking. The country was adrift."

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