But when inflation takes off, stocks and bonds become positively correlated, rising and falling together. The failure of bonds and stocks to deliver protection when inflation spikes has forced investors to seek other hedges. “Each attempted inflation hedge has its particular attractions, risks, and shortcomings,” wrote the journalist Henry Hazlitt in 1978. Hazlitt wrote that the only reliable inflation hedge is to end inflation. If the Fed loses its battle against rising prices, more people will come to appreciate the insurance they provide.

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