Inflation: A Guide for Users and Losers

Inflation came and went, and yet prices are higher than ever and everyone expect the very top are feeling the pinch. Yet the conventional wisdom about inflation is stuck in the past. Since the 1970s, there has only really been one playbook for fighting inflation: raise interest rates. But this simple story hides a multitude of beliefs about why prices go up and how policymakers can wrestle them back down, beliefs that are often have little empirical basis. Inflation may be back down, but we must update our thinking about it. Now tariffs, climate shocks, demographic change, geopolitical tensions, and politicians promising to upend the global order are all combining to create a more inflationary future, making a new understanding of inflation urgently necessary.

The lecture is taking place in Bush House Lecture Theatre 2, (BH(S) 4.04) and will be followed by a reception which guests are welcome to attend.

SPEAKERS

Mark Blyth is the William R. Rhodes ’57 Professor of International Economics at the Watson School of International and Public Affairs at Brown University where he is the Director of the Rhodes Centre for International Economics and Finance. He writes about the politics of growth, distribution and decarbonization, and the strange persistence of dubious economic ideas.

Nicolò Fraccaroli is an Economist at the World Bank. His research focuses on central banking, inflation, and financial stability, with work published in journals such as the Journal of Banking and Finance, Research Policy, and the International Journal of Central Banking. He is the co-author, with Mark Blyth, of Inflation: A Guide for Users and Losers (W.W. Norton, 2025) and of Austerity vs Stimulus (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017) with Robert Skidelsky. Previously, he was a Postdoctoral Research Associate and Adjunct Professor at Brown University and worked at the European Central Bank and the Bank of England. He has a PhD in Economics from the University of Rome Tor Vergata and an MSc in Political Economy of Europe from LSE.

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

Get App

Host or Publisher Department of European and International Studies