A pretty significant change

I'm not one to worry about inflation. You know that. But but I want you to look at this graph with an open mind:

From SUMPRICE.PDF by Robert C. Sahr (2003)

You can click the graph for a bigger, readable version. But you don't need to read the text. Just read the plotted line. That's the U.S. price level since 1665. Looks to me like there's been a pretty significant change, there on the right, the last sixty years or so. Pretty significant. I don't think anybody in their right mind can say inflation is not a big deal.

Inflation is a result, of course. You can't focus on inflation and do good economics. But I would say the same of unemployment and GDP -- and inequality, for that matter. Results. Let's not think about the results. Let's think about what might have caused those results.

It has to be something we fail to understand -- something policymakers fail to understand. Perhaps it's something that they ignore, something they dismiss out-of-hand when you bring it up. Something like private sector debt.

But who can say.