  The prototype hybrid SUSY SU(5) inflation models, while well motivated from
particle physics, and while allowing an acceptable inflationary phase with
little or no fine tuning, are shown to have two fundamental phenomenological
problems. (1) They inevitably result in the wrong vacuum after inflation is
over; and (2) they do not solve the monopole problem. In order to get around
the first problem the level of complexity of these models must be increased.
One can also avoid the second problem in this way. We also demonstate another
possibility by proposing a new general mechanism to avoid the monopole problem
with, or without inflation.
