I&#x27;d had basically the same thought, and I was more or less trying to reproduce how I got to it, hopefully with some references.<p>I completely agree that it somehow seems self-evident, but that&#x27;s sort of weak tea.<p>If we&#x27;ve lost the ability to use inflation as a steering mechanism for the economy ( and boy does it look like we have ) then I think that explains much of our present pain and suffering. It is as if we&#x27;ve basically internalized inflation bad&quot; back to our limbic system and we only react in the one direction now.<p>I don&#x27;t know if this will help, but I read the rise of all the political ... unpleasantness in the 1930s - leading to the deaths of 4% of all humans in the 1940s - as a manifestation of this same phenomenon.