11 February

The ongoing problems with inflation always talk of supply and demand, the non-thinking person’s answer to everything economic. But wealth is the dominant marker of status in societies, so inflation represents uncontrolled status rivalry, as people compete with each other for status. Very common in populist times, as populism itself is uncontrolled status rivalry, trying to supplant the existing status quo. The Trumps and Pauline Hansons of the world care diddly squat about ‘the people’ they speak in the name of. They want to replace the current elite, with themselves.