Inflation may be an unavoidable economic fact of life, but it’s starting to make a lot of people very nervous.

Economists, investors and everyday folks believe inflation is primed for rapid growth as trillions in federal stimulus spending is layered on top of the Federal Reserve’s rock-bottom rates, a nascent economic recovery and hordes of newly vaccinated shoppers who are eager to spend.

The question is whether the coming wave of inflation will be a modest, easily managed wave or a dramatic flood that will roil markets, kneecap savers and cause the Fed to rapidly hike rates, imperiling the recovery.