Merryn Somerset Webb

But in fact, of course, we really want to talk about the UK bond market and stuff like that.

But just not today.

Yeah, I mean, it's interesting mentioning price controls because price controls, and we've discussed before, they just pop up all over the place now.

And that brings us back to thinking about how inflation develops and how long it could last.

I mean, it's very unusual in economies that have had higher than expected inflation for four or five years or whatever, as we have had, and as they have had in the US, by the way, for inflation just to pull itself together and come back to target just like that.

That's really very unusual.

And particularly, I would say, unlikely in a political environment when the appetite to keep inflation low is kind of gone.

The appetite to constrain spending, the appetite to look at the source of inflation, which in the UK's cases is all sorts of things, but out of control spending, endless price controls, endless regulation, minimum wages and all this kind of thing.

They're all embedded and it's almost impossible to imagine a new government coming in and saying, actually, do you know what, let's stop covering everything up with price controls of various sorts and let's get to the bottom of inflation.

That's not going to happen.

I mean, I think at this point it's a Western issue.

There is no appetite anywhere for dealing with the core of the problem.

Yeah, but you know that's nonsense, John.

You know it's nonsense.

But no one believes it.

If anyone believed it, would guilt heels be so high?

Aren't those things connected?

Yeah, so I mean, that's what I mean when I say it's difficult to imagine it going back to 2% and this whole idea that, oh, you know, people's expectations are still anchored, are they?

Are they though?

You expect what you just had in the mail, right?