America’s inflation scare becomes less menacing

THE USED-CAR salesman occupies a distinctive, if rather unflattering, place in American culture. In “The Grapes of Wrath”, John Steinbeck’s classic novel set in the Depression, sleazy salesmen prey on miserable farmers. “Cadillac Man”, a film from 1990, features a fast-talking merchant with a bevy of mistresses. These depictions, and many others, are unfair to most of the hard-working types on car lots. But in recent months such salesmen have occupied a distinctive and unflattering place in America’s economy, as avatars of worryingly rapid inflation.