Are we returning to 1970s stagflation?

Economists and financial journalists, like financial markets, are notoriously prone to the herd instinct - to following the leader regardless of where the herd is headed.

The orthodox flavour of the month is that Britain and the major Eurozone economies are headed for 1970s-style stagflation, a bleak combination of low growth and high inflation. Of these two evils, inflation is proclaimed to be the worse. Fix inflation and growth will follow is the current mantra of the professionals. ...