## Unwelcome Return

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**Canonical URL:** [Unwelcome Return](https://www.imf.org/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2023/june/book-review-harris.pdf)

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### Summary
- Review of Stephen D. King’s book: We Need to Talk about Inflation: 14 Urgent Lessons from the Last 2,000 Years.
- Central contention attributed to King: current inflationary episode is driven less by isolated shocks (pandemic supply chain snarls, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine) and more by systemic problems in recent economic policy.
- Reviewer: MAX HARRIS, senior fellow at the Wharton Initiative on Financial Policy and Regulation.

### Key arguments attributed to King
- Central banks adopted frameworks that bias them toward inflation.
- Quantitative easing became “totally addictive.”
- Policymakers assumed their anti-inflation credibility would keep inflation expectations “well behaved.”
- Central banks are argued to be less independent than they appear and subject to pressure from fiscal authorities.
- Inflation has massive, often unfair and undemocratic, distributional consequences.
- Price and wage controls are judged “bad in theory and worse in practice.”
- Monetary history matters; lessons from the past should inform present policy.

### Historical examples and narrative approach
- The book uses historical anecdotes to illustrate inflation’s recurrence and consequences, including:
  - Earnest Jackson’s 1975 funk song “Inflation.”
  - French assignats.
  - US greenbacks during the Civil War.
  - Weimar hyperinflation.
  - Roman coinage and medieval debasement.
  - The 1970s.
  - Britain’s mini-budget crisis (recent history).
- Reviewer notes: anecdotes “liven and inform the narrative,” but readers seeking a systematic two-millennia treatment should look elsewhere.

### Recommendations, takeaways, and open questions
- Sensible lessons noted by the reviewer:
  - Inflation must be tackled head-on and without hesitation.
  - Policymakers should heed historical lessons on inflation’s dangers.
  - Central bankers’ recent actions: “raising rates at a rapid clip.”
- Reviewer highlights unresolved points in King’s prescriptions:
  - Which specific “rules-based” policy framework does King favor?
  - What precisely is meant by calling for “monetary dominance” over fiscal policy?
- Cautionary note: while focusing on inflation, policymakers must not forget the perils of deflation, which history also documents as painful.

### Publication details and exact bibliographic facts preserved
- Title: We Need to Talk about Inflation: 14 Urgent Lessons from the Last 2,000 Years
- Author: Stephen D. King
- Publisher: Yale University Press
- Location and date: New Haven, CT, 2023
- Length and price: 240 pp., $28

*Source: June 2023 | FINANCE & DEVELOPMENT — book review by Max Harris*

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_Source: https://www.imf.org/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2023/june/book-review-harris.pdf_