I was born in 1979, so any anecdotes about the rise of disco or the fall of Saigon have come, at best, second hand. So too are the stories of inflation on a scale so epic it makes 2022 seem like a consumer paradise. But while things aren't that bad (yet), there is a reason why there have been comparisons as of late between the current economic and market landscape and that of the 1970s.
For sure, culturally, there are no comparisons. The 1970s may have been economically depressed and riddled with crime (especially in a city like New York), but it was—according to those who lived it to the fullest—very, very fun. Today, we may see rising crime and inflation, but I have a feeling that the spirit of the 70s—and any chance of it coming back—was lost forever sometime between iPhone 5 and iPhone (whatever it is up to now). And while some writers try to draw parallels between the withdrawal from Afghanistan and the withdrawal from Vietnam, Afghanistan (rightly or wrongly) occupied nowhere near the space in the American mind.
