Business: The Showdown Fight Over Inflation

IN other times and other places, at least one good thing could be said about inflation. It usually brought more pleasures than immediate problems. Prices rose, but paychecks and profits scooted up even faster. Few people could resist the urge to go on a buying spree to stock up on clothes, cars and all sorts of consumer goods in order to beat the next price hike. Daring entrepreneurs became instant millionaires; even penny-ante plungers built up neat nest eggs in the stock market. Inevitably, an exhilarating boom...