Column: The specter of inflation is upon us By Chris Talgo - InsideSources.com It has been several decades since Americans dealt with the specter of inflation. However, according to several economic benchmarks and commonsense, inflation is oozing into the American economy like poison ivy into an open wound. The last time the U.S. economy was overrun with inflation occurred during the dark days of the late 1970s. For example, in December 1979, as disco music rocked the nation, the annual inflation rate reached a staggering 13.3 percent. As Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen recently said during a House of Representatives hearing, “I came of age and studied economics in the 1970s and I remember what that terrible period was like … No one wants to see that happen again.” I doubt Yellen was referring to disco.