FILE - Cars line up in two directions at a gas station in New York City, on Dec. 23, 1973. An unhappy confluence of events has economists reaching back to the days of disco and the bleak high-inflation, high-unemployment economy of nearly a half century ago. No one thinks stagflation is in sight. But as a longer-term threat, it can no longer be dismissed. (AP Photo/Marty Lederhandler, File)