I think in the mid-1970’s, most households carried relatively little debt. Having a savings account still made sense.
Somewhere in the mid-1970’s, though, Fed policy made money cheap, and people started charging more things, and borrowing more and more for houses. A lot of borrowing was going on, which is to say money creation by banks, and that creates inflation.
At the same time, Carter, like all socialists, punished job creators, causing poor economic conditions. Hence stagflation. Remember, most inflation is created by bank loans, which are normally made in good times.
This may all be a fabrication of my imagination. I have not studied that period in depth, yet, but that is my best guess.
Today, though, Americans are loaded up with debt. People are not taking out new credit cards for the first time, but rather trying to figure out how to pay down the ones that they have. Mass lending is not taking place, and will not take place until we get a good economic recovery. The problem is, Obama’s policies make a full recovery unlikely or even impossible, particularly once we tack the EPA onto Obamacare and general nervousness about having a Communist President.
Thus, the collapse of the dollar is postponed, despite the Fed’s best efforts. They have certainly been laying the groundwork for it. In some respects, we should perhaps be grateful for this. It buys time for consciousness raising, and for a Congressional counterattack on this lunacy.