@SteveRoth Ask Arthur Burns! He was pretty explicit they could have killed the inflation with sufficiently tight policy, but thought (correctly!) the social and political costs of that would be unbearably high. The policy apparatus of the 1970s was desperately afraid of young idle hands, did its best to keep them employed at wages above marginal productivity. A transfer! The low-bargaining power already-employed suffered most, but shares did badly, as did most financial assets in real terms.