Phillips Curve Explorer 2D: Inflation vs. Unemployment

This simulator plots the expectations-augmented Phillips curve directly on the unemployment–inflation plane. Push the demand-stimulus slider and unemployment falls below its natural rate — inflation rises above what people expected, sliding the economy down the current blue short-run curve. But adaptive expectations mean people revise what they expect next quarter based on what inflation just did, which shifts that blue curve upward each tick. Hold the stimulus and the amber trail spirals outward toward ever-higher inflation for the same unemployment rate; release it and the economy drifts back toward the vertical red long-run curve at the natural rate. A supply-shock slider reproduces 1970s-style stagflation, where unemployment and inflation rise together. Drag the canvas to pan and scroll or pinch to zoom into any part of the trajectory.