Stagflation Is Reshaping Consumer Behavior

Stagflation Conversations with Fexingo: High Inflation, Slow Growth, and 1970s Echoes · May 21, 2026 · 9m · transcript

In Episode 3 of Stagflation Conversations, Lucas and Luna examine how persistent high inflation and slow growth are fundamentally changing the way American households spend, save, and borrow. Rather than rehashing gold sell-offs or bond vigilante narratives, they drill into a specific, underappreciated shift: the rise of 'trading down' behavior even among upper-middle-income consumers. Using fresh CPI data from April 2026, they note that core CPI hit 335.4, up from 334.17, while real GDP growth sits at just 2.0 percent annualised. Lucas argues that the psychological threshold has…