Consider an 18-year old, born in 2008, the year the financial crisis kicked off. For the first 13 years of their life, there was no inflation. By 2021, overall prices, as measured by the Central Statistics Office, were just a couple of per cent higher than they were in spring 2008, when the first rumblings of banking trouble were starting to sound. In the five years since then, consumer prices have risen by not far short of one-quarter. The price of a white sliced pan remained roughly constant at €1.30 from 2016 to 2021, and has since risen to about €1.67.

The latest crisis, sparked by the war in the Gulf, suggests that the price surge which followed the Russian invasion of Ukraine – and was influenced by the post-Covid world economy – was a sign that the world had changed. Ireland may not see a similar spike in prices this time, though of course, we don’t know how the conflict will play out. The latest forecasts note Irish inflation rising to more than 4 per cent on the basis of the rise in energy costs seen so far – serious, but a long way from the inflation spike of 9 per cent we saw after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, driven in part by higher gas prices.

The long period of “no inflation” is now well and truly over after the financial crash. In an era when economic power is being weaponised, shortages and inflation result, whether from higher energy prices, trade wars or upended supply chains. The old world of globalisation and goods being made wherever was cheapest, with little regard for politics, is gone. Now, countries seek security of........

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