
Inflation
A Guide for Users and Losers
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Pre-order for $13.99
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Rebecca H. Lee
About this listen
Inflation is back, and its impact can be felt everywhere, from the grocery store to the mortgage market to the results of elections around the world. 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, thereby creating unemployment and a recession, which will lower prices. 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 wrong, damaging, and have little empirical basis.
Leading political economists Mark Blyth and Nicolò Fraccaroli reveal why inflation really happens, challenge how we think about it, and argue for fresh approaches to combat it. With accessible and engaging commentary, and a good dose of humor, Blyth and Fraccaroli bring the complexities of economic policy and inflation indices down to earth.
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 paradigm for understanding inflation urgently necessary. Astute, timely, and engaging, Inflation is a must-listen for anyone seeking to understand the forces shaping our economy and politics.
©2025 Mark Blyth and Nicolo Fraccaroli (P)2025 Ascent AudioPeople who viewed this also viewed...
-
Austerity
- The History of a Dangerous Idea
- By: Mark Blyth
- Narrated by: Fred Stella
- Length: 11 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Governments today in both Europe and the United States have succeeded in casting government spending as reckless wastefulness that has made the economy worse. In contrast, they have advanced a policy of draconian budget cuts - austerity - to solve the financial crisis. We are told that we have all lived beyond our means and now need to tighten our belts. This view conveniently forgets where all that debt came from. Not from an orgy of government spending, but as the direct result of bailing out, recapitalizing, and adding liquidity to the broken banking system.
-
-
Biting Rhetoric; Short on Answers
- By Will Szal on 12-22-18
By: Mark Blyth
-
Angrynomics
- By: Eric Lonergan, Mark Blyth
- Narrated by: Eric Lonergan, Mark Blyth
- Length: 5 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Why are measures of stress and anxiety on the rise when economists and politicians tell us we have never had it so good? While statistics tell us that the vast majority of people are getting steadily richer, the world most of us experience day in and day out feels increasingly uncertain, unfair, and ever more expensive. In Angrynomics, Eric Lonergan and Mark Blyth explore the rising tide of anger, sometimes righteous and useful, sometimes destructive and ill-targeted, and propose radical new solutions for an increasingly polarized and confusing world.
-
-
Call for rationality and cool-headedness
- By Octavian on 05-08-24
By: Eric Lonergan, and others
-
Trade Wars Are Class Wars
- How Rising Inequality Distorts the Global Economy and Threatens International Peace
- By: Matthew C. Klein, Michael Pettis
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Trade disputes are usually understood as conflicts between countries with competing national interests, but as Matthew C. Klein and Michael Pettis show in this book, they are often the unexpected result of domestic political choices to serve the interests of the rich at the expense of workers and ordinary retirees. Klein and Pettis trace the origins of today's trade wars to decisions made by politicians and business leaders in China, Europe, and the United States over the past 30 years.
-
-
Narrator is robotic
- By dugmartssch on 05-22-20
By: Matthew C. Klein, and others
-
Why We’re Getting Poorer
- A Realist’s Guide to the Economy and How We Can Fix It
- By: Cahal Moran
- Narrated by: Cahal Moran
- Length: 10 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Did you know that while we think of money as notes issued by the government, the truth is that the overwhelming majority of money today is credit created by private banks? Did you know that the reason housing keeps getting less accessible is because we haven’t found a way to separate houses from land in our policies? And did you know that far from globalisation being a mystical force, certain countries and currencies have dominated the way it has played out – to their own advantage?
-
-
An accessible explanation of why things feel so broken
- By Bruce on 03-20-25
By: Cahal Moran
-
Chokepoints
- American Power in the Age of Economic Warfare
- By: Edward Fishman
- Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
- Length: 17 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It used to be that ravaging another country’s economy required blockading its ports and laying siege to its cities. Now all it takes is a statement posted online by the U.S. government. In Chokepoints, Edward Fishman, a former top State Department sanctions official, takes us deep into the back rooms of power to reveal the untold history of the last two decades of U.S. foreign policy, in which America renounced the gospel of globalization and waged a new kind of economic war.
-
-
An economics textbook disguised as a thriller
- By Jesse Spevack on 03-26-25
By: Edward Fishman
-
Who Is Government?
- The Untold Story of Public Service
- By: Michael Lewis
- Narrated by: Michael Lewis, Sarah Vowell, John Lanchester, and others
- Length: 6 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The government is a vast, complex system that Americans pay for, rebel against, rely upon, dismiss, and celebrate. It’s also our shared resource for addressing the biggest problems of society. And it’s made up of people, mostly unrecognized and uncelebrated, doing work that can be deeply consequential and beneficial to everyone. Michael Lewis invited his favorite writers, including Casey Cep, Dave Eggers, John Lanchester, Geraldine Brooks, Sarah Vowell, and W. Kamau Bell, to join him in finding someone doing an interesting job for the government and writing about them.
-
-
Imagine what we could achieve if we actually understood
- By Anonymous User on 03-24-25
By: Michael Lewis
-
Austerity
- The History of a Dangerous Idea
- By: Mark Blyth
- Narrated by: Fred Stella
- Length: 11 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Governments today in both Europe and the United States have succeeded in casting government spending as reckless wastefulness that has made the economy worse. In contrast, they have advanced a policy of draconian budget cuts - austerity - to solve the financial crisis. We are told that we have all lived beyond our means and now need to tighten our belts. This view conveniently forgets where all that debt came from. Not from an orgy of government spending, but as the direct result of bailing out, recapitalizing, and adding liquidity to the broken banking system.
-
-
Biting Rhetoric; Short on Answers
- By Will Szal on 12-22-18
By: Mark Blyth
-
Angrynomics
- By: Eric Lonergan, Mark Blyth
- Narrated by: Eric Lonergan, Mark Blyth
- Length: 5 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Why are measures of stress and anxiety on the rise when economists and politicians tell us we have never had it so good? While statistics tell us that the vast majority of people are getting steadily richer, the world most of us experience day in and day out feels increasingly uncertain, unfair, and ever more expensive. In Angrynomics, Eric Lonergan and Mark Blyth explore the rising tide of anger, sometimes righteous and useful, sometimes destructive and ill-targeted, and propose radical new solutions for an increasingly polarized and confusing world.
-
-
Call for rationality and cool-headedness
- By Octavian on 05-08-24
By: Eric Lonergan, and others
-
Trade Wars Are Class Wars
- How Rising Inequality Distorts the Global Economy and Threatens International Peace
- By: Matthew C. Klein, Michael Pettis
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Trade disputes are usually understood as conflicts between countries with competing national interests, but as Matthew C. Klein and Michael Pettis show in this book, they are often the unexpected result of domestic political choices to serve the interests of the rich at the expense of workers and ordinary retirees. Klein and Pettis trace the origins of today's trade wars to decisions made by politicians and business leaders in China, Europe, and the United States over the past 30 years.
-
-
Narrator is robotic
- By dugmartssch on 05-22-20
By: Matthew C. Klein, and others
-
Why We’re Getting Poorer
- A Realist’s Guide to the Economy and How We Can Fix It
- By: Cahal Moran
- Narrated by: Cahal Moran
- Length: 10 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Did you know that while we think of money as notes issued by the government, the truth is that the overwhelming majority of money today is credit created by private banks? Did you know that the reason housing keeps getting less accessible is because we haven’t found a way to separate houses from land in our policies? And did you know that far from globalisation being a mystical force, certain countries and currencies have dominated the way it has played out – to their own advantage?
-
-
An accessible explanation of why things feel so broken
- By Bruce on 03-20-25
By: Cahal Moran
-
Chokepoints
- American Power in the Age of Economic Warfare
- By: Edward Fishman
- Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
- Length: 17 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It used to be that ravaging another country’s economy required blockading its ports and laying siege to its cities. Now all it takes is a statement posted online by the U.S. government. In Chokepoints, Edward Fishman, a former top State Department sanctions official, takes us deep into the back rooms of power to reveal the untold history of the last two decades of U.S. foreign policy, in which America renounced the gospel of globalization and waged a new kind of economic war.
-
-
An economics textbook disguised as a thriller
- By Jesse Spevack on 03-26-25
By: Edward Fishman
-
Who Is Government?
- The Untold Story of Public Service
- By: Michael Lewis
- Narrated by: Michael Lewis, Sarah Vowell, John Lanchester, and others
- Length: 6 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The government is a vast, complex system that Americans pay for, rebel against, rely upon, dismiss, and celebrate. It’s also our shared resource for addressing the biggest problems of society. And it’s made up of people, mostly unrecognized and uncelebrated, doing work that can be deeply consequential and beneficial to everyone. Michael Lewis invited his favorite writers, including Casey Cep, Dave Eggers, John Lanchester, Geraldine Brooks, Sarah Vowell, and W. Kamau Bell, to join him in finding someone doing an interesting job for the government and writing about them.
-
-
Imagine what we could achieve if we actually understood
- By Anonymous User on 03-24-25
By: Michael Lewis