Sponsored Content provided by Jason Wheeler - CEO, Pathfinder Wealth Consulting This article was contributed by Wealth Advisor John Zachary. The silent killer. The redheaded stepchild of economists. Inflation has become a big topic in the financial media recently, as it typically does during periods of government stimulus and spending. However, inflation hasn’t been a real risk for a very long time – even decades – so why is it coming into the conversation now? Before we go into our expectations for inflation in the near term, let’s first cover the basics. Inflation is traditionally measured by something called the Consumer Price index, or CPI. Over the past 20 years, the CPI has averaged around 2.5%. Before the Great Recession of 2007- 2009, CPI averaged around 2-3%. There was a brief spike to around 5% coming out of the crisis, but it has since hovered around 1.5%. In other words, inflation has been largely muted for a very long time. It’s also worth noting that the CPI formula has been adjusted multiple times to account for changes in consumer culture and to increase efficiencies over the years.