> but why exactly aren't we having 70s stagflation or worse in the US? we had strong unions back then which would demand double-digit COLA raises in salary pro

> but why exactly aren't we having 70s stagflation or worse in the US? we had strong unions back then which would demand double-digit COLA raises in salary producing a wage-price spiral. given how people could actually afford homes back then, though, i don't think this was a particularly bad thing. what we have now contains all the inflation in the system to the upper class and asset bubbles. we need either to have the cost of housing deflate or the wages paid to inflate. it will be less painful to inflate wages. this isn't what we're going to do though.