The deep downturns of the early 1980s were largely engineered by the Federal Reserve, which boosted short-term interest rates to near 20% to slow down galloping inflation.

ECONOMIST: Bucking up this recovery is harder than it was in the past

The latest setback for Zimbabwe came as newspapers reported that the government was freezing wages for public sector workers as part of efforts restrain galloping inflation and restore macroeconomic stability.

BBC: World Bank halts Zimbabwe loans

By that measure, the Everyday Price Index shows inflation galloping ahead at an 8.1 percent annual rate, a reading that would put the current Misery Index at a Carter-like 16.4 percent not a good recipe for re-election.

FORBES: Inflation Isn't The Point Of Monetary Easing

Thatcher also immediately began to slash income tax rates, rein in galloping spending and fight inflation.

FORBES: Margaret The Magnificent: We Desperately Need More Leaders Like Her

Immediately she began slashing income tax rates and reining in galloping spending and fighting inflation.

FORBES: The Amazing Margaret Thatcher: We Desperately Need More Leaders Like Her

It helped that inflation was galloping when the older group was borrowing to buy homes, but slowed thereafter.

ECONOMIST: Social change

He remembers literally running in his past days as a lawyer to spend his pay cheques before inflation, galloping at 1% a day or faster, could catch up with them.

ECONOMIST: The battle royal for Brazil��s real

Galloping petrol and grocery costs have driven up inflation, so they look to core inflation as a proxy of where things end up once commodity prices stop rising.

ECONOMIST: Ignore the hawkish rhetoric. The Fed isn��t about to tighten