Not saying we are there, but if inflation is due to worker shortages and logistics problems that are long term (say due to long covid), then at what point do you stop calling it just inflation and start calling it some kind of shortage crisis? Maybe when rationing starts? Is there a threshold of unaffordability or something, some technical measure that tells us this is more than the usual kind of trouble? Would inflation due to shortages cause a recession or depression? I'm not sure, everyone might be employed, earning reasonable wages, and many things might function as they always have so it doesn't seem like it would be a recession or depression, yet if workers/goods are scarce life might become more difficult for everyone. Is there even a name for this in economics? It's similar to a World War, where a large percentage of the young were missing so there were fewer workers (although in a war lots of resources were also destroyed, which is not the case now). Just curious if there has been any formal economic analysis of this kind of thing in the past.
