Worldwide news coverage of inflation collapsed at the start of the pandemic from January to March 2020, but began rebounding by the end of March and increasing ever since. Mentions sharply accelerated from late August 2021 and have increased linearly ever since. Far from a sudden exogenous "black swan" shock to the economy that could not have been anticipated, the long steady march of inflation coverage across the world suggests policymakers and corporate leaders had a long two-year planning horizon, with 10 months of high-intensity anomalous trending to warn them of impending inflationary pressures.