Inflation and the cost of living crisis...... The Long View today on the wireless

Now I am a great fan of the Long View which takes a topical issue and looks back into the past for parallels, which might or might not help explain the situation.

And as one of those much derided baby boomers I lived through the inflationary period of the 1970s and 80s when interest rates seemed to climb each month.

Added to which I had studied and went onto teach that period of inflation in the 1920s, particularly in relation to Weimar Germany, when prices increased almost by the hour.

"With the warning of potential double digit inflation on the way and the already very real cost of living crisis, Jonathan Freedland is joined by Economic Historians Albrecht Ritschl and Duncan Needham to compare today's situation with the context, causes and impact of UK inflation spikes in the 1920s and the 1970s.

Economies rarely fall prey to single drivers, but war, pandemic, international oil price and food costs have all been part of Britain's story in the past. 

Jonathan discovers how politicians dealt with inflation in the 1920s and 1970s, what the costs of their interventions were, and to what extent the insights of hindsight might help an approach to today's growing pressures.

Producer: Tom Alban"*

Pictures; from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Inflation and the cost of living crisis, Radio 4, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0017cln