This is Planet Money from NPR.

These are uncertain economic times.

Most people have jobs and money to spend, but certain things are getting harder to find.

Prices are going up for food and gasoline.

And this is turning into a big political problem.

Just ask the president.

Some call it inflation.

Which is a vague sort of term.

And others call it a rise in the cost of living, which is much more easily understood by

most families.

Yes, this is 1942.

And that is President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in a fireside chat.

Describing inflation as a serious threat to the entire economy.

It's the vicious spiral of inflation ever gets underway.

The whole economic system will stagger.

The context at that time?

America had been at war for less than a year.

The outcome felt completely uncertain.

The country's young men were overseas fighting our enemies.

And FDR was saying there's an enemy at home too.

Rising prices.

And every American should fight that enemy with the same vigor.

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