Economy

That's a combination of inflation and recession and unemployment and it sucks. It's hard to manage because if government policies try to control one characteristic it makes the others worse. The stagflation period lasted more than 10 years and included the farm crisis of the early '80s and mortgage interest rates of more than 16%. It was "cured" when the Fed gradually raised the federal funds rate over time to 19% to control inflation, which caused two recessions. "By 1984, over 52,000 businesses had failed, home and car sales dropped dramatically, and unemployment rose to as high as 10%." So breaking out of a stagflation pattern will certainly be painful.