If the political and public policy challenges posed by inflation were easy to overcome, more governments would have done so by now.
Instead, recent elections have shown the current moment to be, in the words of the Financial Times’ John Burn-Murdoch, “arguably the most hostile environment in history for incumbent parties and politicians across the developed world.”
In fairness, inflation probably doesn’t explain everything about the defeats incumbents have suffered over the past year. But the frustrations and anxiety caused by higher prices seem to be one significant common denominator — the factor David Coletto, the pollster at Abacus Data, recently dubbed “inflationitis.”
Political leaders, Coletto argued, needed to respond with “empathy and transparency, acknowledging the real struggles people are facing.”
“Their actions must feel like help,” he wrote earlier this month. “They can do things that are perceived to provide immediate, practical, and universalrelief — measures like tax cuts or direct payments or rebates. …