Clear the decks
Mythology and literature have a variety of disposal methods for inconvenient monsters – alas none that seem applicable to inflation.
They can be eaten, as befell the Bible’s sea serpent Levia-than and the mutant stone fruit in Roald Dahl’s James and the Giant Peach, but any kind of consumption only makes inflation more monstrous.
Aggressive pursuit is lethally dangerous, as per Moby Dick.
Perhaps inflation is more like Jaws: endlessly replicable. It savages extensively before it’s vanquished, only to lurk in the deep, ready for its next sequel opportunity.
It is Finance Minister Grant Robertson’s fate to be devising a last big feasts – pandemic, supply-chain sclerosis and the Ukraine War – and its next possible banquet, a global recession. If Russia takes a decisive hammering from sanctions, economists worry the world will suffer a thudding downturn. Paradoxically, if Russia succeeds in conquering Ukraine, the world’s energy crisis will deepen. Either way, inflation stands to be fed fatter than a Strasbourg goose.
