Inflation: tracing the causes.

In the first half of 1979, the U.S. inflation rate was running higher than the alarming pace of most of the previous 10 years. Because the current price increases are led by the necessities--food, energy, medical care, housing and interest rates--inflation was having a particularly devastating impact on lower income families whose incomes go almost exclusively for those necessities. Workers remain on a treadmill--losing ground in real spendable earnings despite new wage increases.