We Need To Talk About Inflation – In Conversation with Stephen King

NIESR hosted a conversation between Shamik Dhar and Stephen King, discussing some of the themes in Stephen's new book, 'We Need To Talk About Inflation'.

Inflation can have a corrosive effect on social stability, as NIESR has regularly argued, leading to an arbitrary redistribution of income and wealth. It has increasingly appeared since the 1990s that inflation was a problem solved.  But Covid and the invasion of Ukraine have exposed this stubborn problem once again.

Using key lessons from the history of inflation - from ancient Rome through the American Civil War to present day - Stephen provides an explanation of inflation, together with advice for policymakers and central bankers as they seek to tackle the political and social upheaval that it unleashes.

Stephen is a trustee of NIESR, columnist for the Evening Standard, senior economic adviser to HSBC and a former specialist adviser to the House of Commons Treasury Committee. He is the author of three previous books: Losing Control, When the Money Runs Out, and Grave New World.

Shamik is currently Chief Economist of BNY Mellon, and has previously worked as Chief Economist and Director for Economics at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, as well as a senior economist in the Bank of England, where he worked on the UK economic forecast in the early days of inflation targeting and on monetary policy analysis in the early days of the Monetary Policy Committee. He started his career in HM Treasury and has held positions with Oxford Economics, Morley Fund Management and Aviva Investors.