The indexation of wages, which was very widespread back then in the United States and parts of Europe and which fostered wage-price spirals, barely exists anymore. This means that the probability of a wage-price spiral emerging today is also lower than it was at that time. The next important difference is in inflation expectations.
Signs of a change in longer-term inflation expectations – known as unanchoring or de-anchoring – were already evident in the United States before the first oil price shock. [3] In hindsight, the oil price shocks at that time were arguably no more than a catalyst for consumer price inflation that was already in progress.