>The Fed considers a 2% inflation rate to be a sign of sustainable growth and a level that keeps interest rates high enough to allow for mobility in the event of an economic downturn.
For the first time in a very long time we actually have a shortage of supply. We didn't have that in 2009.
But I think/hope it will be short lived, and depending on how we act now it could easily turn into a shortage of demand once again.
If stuff doesn't get manufactured for months, we will have a shortage of many other things as well. Obviously we have a lack of demand for other things at the same time.
I don't think there is that much unreasonable stockpiling. People are no longer eating out. Kids are no longer eating at school. So people buy more at supermarkets. They also buy for a week, quite sensibly, to avoid making a trip to a crowded supermarket every day.
Combine that with finely tuned just in time logistics and you get a bit of a crunch. There's simply a misalignment of capacity right now, but there could be a real shortage of some essentials soon.
Fairly few households are interested in buying canned tomatoes 18 quarts at a time.
Gyms are closed, so go try to find a squat rack, a bar, and some bumper plates for a home gym. Or dumbbells. Or even some crappy resistance bands. You can't. Nobody is hoarding 45lb plates for future use, they're demanding them for use now. Expand this for every industry impacted by shutdown orders. It wouldn't take long to think of hundreds of examples of non-hoarding shortages.
Inflation is coming. Shortages are the market telling you that price MUST increase to equalize demand. And it will.
True, but misleading; again, it's real rather than nominal rates that matter to most people. Before the GFC you could get interest on savings above the rate of inflation, even after tax. Not spectacular gains, but saving was at least possible.
After the GFC your choices are to either a) join the long queue of ever-greater fools piling into the casino, or b) watch central banks confiscate your money, year after year, forever.
2) The idea that 2-3% inflation is "really really serious" is completely absurd. I'm guessing you're young because historical US inflation prior to the ridiculous post-2009 financial situation had long periods of being well above 3% and the sky didn't fall. Inflation above what we've seen in the last decade is not necessarily a bad thing.