264. The inflation genie, can we bottle it?

The inflation genie is out of the bottle. Can we get it back in there before it does too much damage? Central banks are trying to tackle it by racing each other to put up interest rates, possibly to levels we haven’t seen in years, despite the fact we’re all leveraged to the hilt with our mortgages. Can that be done without causing a recession? More to the point, does monetary policy actually do what central bankers think it will? On this week’s Debunking Economics podcast Steve Keen tells Phil Dobbie that its up to governments, not banks, to bring inflation down. Instead, it seems, everyone is doing exactly the wrong thing!