With 4-5% inflation without compensatory growth, that would suggest a potential for significant decline of the stock market total asset valuation
That’s just simply not true. Using a 2022 S&P500 earnings estimate of 230 the current earnings yield is 5.5%, which leaves quite a bit of leeway for rates to rise before putting pressure on stocks (yes, I’ve done the research). My expectation is after the dust settles we’ll head back down more to the 3% inflation range given our base rate for years has been stuck at less than 2%, but we’ll see.