In recent months, higher prices have impacted our daily lives. The cost of everything from cars and food to lumber and airfares surged over the summer, given supply-chain issues and a re-orientation of consumer spending as a result of the pandemic.

Although we doubt that a full-blown crisis is imminent, inflation and related supply-chain disruption will create challenges for treasury teams for some time to come.

Not Going Back to the 1970s

For many, today's inflationary pressures are reminiscent of the stagflation crisis of the 1970s. Headlines have sometimes sparked flashbacks to the era's painful oil shortages. Similarly, fiscal and monetary stimulus has, for some, harked back to the loose financial policies that helped drive wage-price spirals and double-digit inflation five decades ago.