The worst inflation outbreak in 40 years: Conference on distilling lessons from the COVID era

During the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, inflation in the United States and many other countries surged to its highest level in more than 40 years, inflicting enormous pain on households and businesses, upending fundamental patterns of economic activity, and changing the course of politics and societies across the globe. The process of distilling the lessons of that era has barely begun.

To advance that important process, the Peterson Institute for International Economics spearheaded a special project, Understanding Inflation in the COVID Era, convening leading authorities with a wide range of expertise to examine different facets of the inflation surge, including supply-side disruptions, demand dynamics, labor markets, fiscal and monetary policy interactions, and international spillovers.

This conference brings together many of the project’s contributing authors to present their work and allow the project co-directors, Karen Dynan and David Wilcox, to lay out the lessons they see as essential for passing on to future decision-makers to better equip them for handling future surges in inflation. Brookings Institution president Cecilia Elena Rouse delivers remarks in a fireside chat moderated by Karen Dynan.

Featured speakers include:

• Alan S. Blinder, Princeton University
• Patrick Honohan, PIIE; Former Governor, Central Bank of Ireland
• Phil Levy, World Bank Group
• Adam S. Posen, PIIE

Read the capstone publication for the PIIE series on “Understanding the COVID Era Inflation.”