Why was a cup of coffee 10 cents in 1960 but over a $1 today? The answer- inflation. A Nexis search in 1996 found that inflation is the most commonly used economic term in the popular media. They found 872,000 news stories over the past twenty years that used the word inflation. "Unemployment" ran a distant second. Inflation is an increase in the price of a basket of goods and services that is representative of the economy as a whole. The Inflation-Recession Cycle. Inflation often coincides...