Powell and the Fed may be prone to the same mistakes that stoked inflation in the 1970s

U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell faces a tough row to hoe fending off politicians who favor easy-money policies while maintaining the stability of the nation’s banking system and lowering U.S. inflation to 2%.

From 1979 to 2009, annual increases in the consumer price index averaged 4% vs. 1.8% in the 2010s. Now the U.S. may be reverting back to that prior norm.

The…