In this op-ed from August 2024 Prof. Steve Hanke and I dismissed the widespread notion
that the post-Covid inflation was a worldwide phenomenon. Summarising a study we
conducted of 27 developed and emerging economies, we found very different rates of
inflation. The common theme was that those which had higher inflation had allowed money
to grow rapidly, while those with lower or negligible inflation had kept money growth firmly
under control. Central bank governors like Jerome Powell at the Fed or Andrew Bailey at the
Bank of England were wrong to blame external factors such as supply chain disruptions or
the Ukraine war for domestic inflation. Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary
phenomenon.