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Oct 23, 2026 46 min

The Inflation Dragon

from History As It Happens Hosted by Martin Di Caro

Subscribe now to skip ads and support the show! As inflation fuels a cost-of-living crisis, millions of Americans are getting a bitter taste of what past generations dealt with. From the mid-1960s into the Age of Reagan, high inflation (or stagflation) bedeviled economists, frustrated presidents, and shrank the horizons of middle-class Americans. And not just inflation! Policy-makers' responses also caused pain. In this episode, historian Nelson Lichtenstein delves into inflation's historical causes and pokes holes in the conventional wisdom that interest rate adjustments by an independent Federal Reserve are the wisest way to tame inflation. Nelson Lichtenstein teaches labor and economic history at U.C. Santa Barbara. He's the author of Why Labor Unions Matter (2026). Go to historyasithappens.com to learn more.

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The Inflation Dragon

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This episode was published on October 23, 2026.

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