In recent years, many advanced economies from the United States and Britain to France and Japan have taken on ever larger public debts, fuelled by generous welfare commitments, ageing populations and chronic budget deficits. What is striking now is not just the scale of the borrowing, but the growing sense that inflation may become the easiest, if most destructive, way out of it. When governments are trapped between rising spending needs and voter resistance to higher taxes, letting prices drift upward becomes the silent escape route. Inflation in this context is not merely an economic symptom but a political decision. It functions as a stealth tax, eroding savings, punishing creditors, and redistributing wealth from the cautious to the indebted.

When public debt reaches or exceeds the size of a nation’s economy, as in Japan or Italy, the temptation to let inflation nibble away at real debt burdens becomes strong. But the cost is........

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