What Is Inflation? | Explained in Under 10 Minutes

In 1923, Weimar Germany, prices were doubling every three days. People carried money in wheelbarrows — not because they were rich, but because that's what a loaf of bread cost. Neev opens there, before Lewis traces the same mechanism back to ancient Rome, where emperors debased silver coins to pay soldiers and merchants noticed immediately. Inflation is, at its core, more money chasing the same amount of goods.Emma explains the CPI — the basket of goods economists track to measure it — and why central banks actually want 2% inflation: a little is healthy, it discourages hoarding and keeps economies moving. Lewis ties the 2021–22 inflation spike directly to events most people lived through: COVID strangled supply chains, governments pumped trillions into economies to prevent depression, then Russia invaded Ukraine and energy prices took everything else with them.Neev names who wins and who loses. Debtors win — the real value of what they owe quietly shrinks. Retirees on fixed incomes, renters, anyone holding cash: they lose. Lewis closes with a structural warning: climate change is likely to be inflationary for decades. Damaged crops, disrupted supply chains, transition costs. Some economists already have a word for it — greenflation.If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe — and send your topic suggestions to [email protected]. We read every one.