In economics, stagflation is a situation in which the inflation rate is high and the economic growth rate slows down and unemployment remains steadily high. It raises a dilemma for economic policy since actions designed to lower inflation or reduce unemployment may actually worsen economic growth. The portmanteau stagflation is generally attributed to British politician Iain Macleod, who coined the phrase in his speech to Parliament in 1965.

The concept is notable because, in the version of Keynesian macroeconomic theory which was dominant between the end of WWII and the late-1970s, inflation and recession were regarded as mutually exclusive, the relationship between the two being described by the Phillips curve. Stagflation is also notable because it has generally proven to be difficult and, in human terms as well as budget deficits, very costly to eradicate once it starts.

In the political arena, one measure of stagflation, termed the Misery Index (derived by the simple addition of the inflation rate to the unemployment rate), was used to swing presidential elections in the United States in 1976 and 1980.

Dirk Müller (born 18 November 1975 in Burbach) is a German race driver, driving for BMW Team RLL in the 2012 American Le Mans Series. His former Schnitzer BMW team-mate Jörg Müller is unrelated, as is French driver Yvan Muller.

In 1996, Dirk Müller won a Formula 3 race at the Nürburgring. In 1998, after a win in the GT1 class of the 24 Hours of Daytona, he scored his first title, the German Porsche Cup, to be followed by the ALMS GT title in 2000.

From the 2002 to 2005 season, both Dirk and Jörg were driving BMW 3series model E46 touring cars for the Schnitzer-operated works squad Team Deutschland in the FIA European Touring Car Championship (now WTCC). Since 2006, the team uses the new BMW 3series model E90 which is based on the BMW 320si limited edition model that has a 4-cyl engine rather than the usual 6-cyl.

The 2004 24 Hours Nürburgring was won by both Müllers (and Hans-Joachim Stuck) with the BMW M3 GTR V8 that had been raced successfully in the 2001 ALMS. In 2005, the Müllers finished 2nd behind their sister car.

George Soros ( /ˈsɔroʊs/ or /ˈsɔrəs/;Hungarian: Soros György; Hungarian: [ˈʃoroʃ]; born August 12, 1930, as Schwartz György) is a Hungarian-American business magnate,investor, and philanthropist. He is the chairman of Soros Fund Management. Soros supports progressive-liberal causes. He is known as "The Man Who Broke the Bank of England" because of his US$1 billion in investment profits during the 1992 Black Wednesday UK currency crisis.

Between 1979 and 2011, Soros gave away over $8 billion to human rights, public health, and education causes. He played a significant role in the peaceful transition from communism to capitalism in Hungary (1984–89), and provided Europe's largest higher education endowment to Central European University in Budapest. Soros is also the chairman of the Open Society Institute.

Soros was born in Budapest, Hungary to a well-to-do, nonobservant Jewish family. His mother Elizabeth (also known as Erzebet), whom Tivadar married in 1924, came from a family that owned a thriving silk shop. His father Tivadar (also known as Teodoro) was a lawyer and had been a prisoner of war during and after World War I until he escaped from Russia and rejoined his family in Budapest. Tivadar was an Esperantist writer and taught George to speak Esperanto from birth. Soros later said that he grew up in a Jewish home and that his parents were cautious with their religious roots. Soros was thirteen years old in March 1944 when Nazi Germany occupied Hungary. Soros took a job with the Jewish Council, which had been established during the Nazi occupation of Hungary. Soros later described this time to writer Michael Lewis: