[ Actually it was only 13% inflation as I recall. ]
No actually 18% was the nominal mortage rate on housing loans.. for a good while..
SOme loans were as high as 21%.. if I remember correctly..
Interest rates were only one of Jimmys minor debacles..
Jimmy chose the wrong decision MORE than 50% of the time..
Could be 100% of the time, at some points..
I was studing for a degree in economics when this asshat was president. They dusted off and perverted a 1950's theory called the "Phillips Curve" to try to explain how both unemployment and inflation could both rise indefinitely. Carter's "cure" was for the American people to lower their expectations and accept a reduced standard of living. What you recall about inflation was exactly right. I was considered a job hog by some of my peers because I was working two jobs, 7 am to 1 pm and 6 pm to midnight and taking a full load of classes in between. Neither job paid very well, so I wasn't trying to be a job hog, just to survive.
I don't know how those starting families at that time managed. No, it wasn't as bad as Mom and Dad's stories about the Great Depression, but it was damn close.