This time round you have more and more stimulus going to ordinary people, who will spend it on ordinary goods like food. That will create a different type of inflation.
(Iām not endorsing either type of bailout/stimulus btw)
And while some of that money found alternate outlets (home improvement, streaming services [0]), the uptick in savings indicated a lot of it pooled [1], and the postponed evictions and rent / loan payments resulted in delayed debt obligations (which are difficult to find numbers on, in total?).
So as usual, arrows pointing both ways.
[0] https://www.familyhandyman.com/article/home-improvement-spen...
[1] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=DXqc (2019-2021 savings rate)
Log into your terminal, type in 'BCOMAGSP Index'. Hit Go. Then hit 'Max.'
Look at the spike in 2010.
Then tell me about the runaway food inflation that happened then.
EDIT: Just to be clear on my point: Yes I agree that people are hedging inflation via commodity futures (like they do after most recessions), but that doesn't mean they're right. In the same way stock prices are often a bad indication of a company's actual value.
Because inflation is the sum of money supply + velocity + consumer expectations + goods production + international monetary markets?
Which explains why historical attempts to point to any one and say "Inflation is coming / not coming!" have fared poorly.