I am seeing lots of articles about inflation picking up....Although nothing like the rates of when I was a young adult.

I have two questions about this:

1) How is this affecting your stocking up levels?  [It will be cheaper to buy today, than tomorrow; but only if there is spare cash now]

2) Will rising costs, together with periodic shortages help crush the economy?  

My initial views:-

1)  I had been thinking of letting stock levels fall, but now will not do that now, and I will try to bring forward some other major purchases (although I don't go to the city too often).   I am also glad I put in a ground heat exchange system years ago, to significantly reduce heating costs [and not depending on an eastern neighbour of imported oil].

2) I see a more gradual bleeding rather than a sudden death, with contractions in economic activities, not an immediate crash. But I wonder how far it needs to decline to reach a tipping point.

Actually, I was thinking about that very subject today.  I am worried that our preps won't last that far in to the future.   We have about 3 months worth of food left and i am having trouble finding more food at the local stores.  We may need to get a few new items.  We are going to a Sam's store about 90 miles away next week.  We plan on buying more food and water there.  We have heard that there has  been an additional run on paper towels, TP and plastic cups.  We may just hunker down for the winter and deal with whatever comes our way.  Jill and Becky are still here.  We need to keep them in mind when we shop.  

I think I'm a bit younger than you, Edwin, but I remember well the "stagflation" of the 70's.  I was just starting out then which is why I felt so for Millenials starting out.

I will partially disagree with you on the stock market, We'll see dips, but I doubt we'll see an outright crash or correction. The reason being is that all the tax cuts under Trump gave the 1% more money than they knew what to do with... do it was invested. That's what's driving the market now. All that extra money.  

The one thing that might save us from real economic woes we experienced back then is the fact that this "reset" driven by the pandemic has people reconsidering their career path.  Lower end jobs like retail and restaurant industries are having a devil of a time getting people to work for low wages and *ahem* customers.  We'll see.  

I'm not sure I see the sense in stocking up as prices rise.  We're not going to see decreases in prices, so best to simply replace what we use now.  I hope that makes sense. I have dispensed with the idea of replacing my refrigerator for the present.  I want to see what happens. With large appliances, there may be a settling down of pricing because they're not selling.  We'll know in about six months.