We’re dubbing Foreign Policy’s summer 2022 magazine the “Back to the Future” issue because key aspects of global affairs seem like echoes from the past: fears about nuclear war, great-power politics, a new arms race, the return of nonalignment, a food shortage, and so much else.
In one of the essays in the magazine, FP columnist Adam Tooze takes on the perception that inflation is back to where it was in the 1970s. Although the comparison is itself an obvious one to make, Tooze writes that policymakers shouldn’t rely too much on lessons from that period.
I spoke with Tooze in an FP Live interview marking the release of FP’s print issue. You can watch the full discussion in the video below. What follows is a condensed and edited transcript.
Foreign Policy: Why do you think some of the lessons we’ve drawn from the 1970s don’t accurately apply to the current moment?
Adam Tooze: I think you could look at it and…
