Far from being some kind of transcendent economic phenomenon originating from higher realms of monetary physics that are indecipherable to us mere proletarian mortals, the economy is actually pretty straightforward and easy to understand — it’s mostly just politics. And that’s still true when it comes to purposefully mystified topics like inflation — particularly to how policymakers respond to inflation — it’s all just politics. Decisions made by those in power. 

But the thing is right now the decisions about how to respond to inflation are being made by a class of people whose job it is, under capitalism, to make sure that the economy works for just one small group of people: capitalists. There is, of course, an alternative — and that alternative is one that would look a lot better for the vast majority of us. 

In this Conversation we take a deep dive into inflation: what it is, what’s driving it, what’s wrong with the current response to it, and what a left response to inflation would look like. 

Hadas Thier is a writer, journalist, and activist based in Brooklyn, New York. We had her on the show earlier this year to talk about her book, A People's Guide to Capitalism: An Introduction to Marxist Economics, and for this Conversation we’ll be talking about her latest article for In These Times, titled “A Left Answer to Inflation.”

Thank you to The Limeliters for the intermission music and to Bethan Mure for the cover art. Upstream theme music was composed by Robert Raymond.

Related Conversations / Further listening: Inflation with Richard Wolff and Dean Baker (In Conversation)

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