Vol. 10 · Portmanteaus ·Mid-century: TV and science ·1965
Stagflation
stagnation inflation
- Meaning
- Persistent high inflation combined with stagnant economic output.
- Source words
- stagnation + inflation
- Coined by
- Iain Macleod
- Year
- 1965
Background
Macleod, a British Conservative MP, used it in the House of Commons to describe the UK's growing 1960s economic trouble. Keynesian economics had said this combination should not occur; the word described what should not exist.
Mid-century: TV and science
Two engines dominated: television (sitcom, televangelist) and post-war big science (pulsar, transistor). Many mid-century coinages came from scientific style sheets and industry journals.
Two words, one coinage.
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