ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book. The book begins with the switch to sociological treatments. It presents a schematic outline of the major relevant macroeconomic theories and of how they have been applied to the postwar inflation. The book outlines and attempts to appraise the political theory that has proved to be most congenial to economists—so-called "public choice" theory. It reviews in considerable detail the forms that such an account might take, and what the relevant evidence shows. The book argues that although there is some evidence of a wage-push, it tends to suggest an altogether weaker economic force than the relevant sociological theory assumes. It also reviews the various, contradictory, Marxist explanations of the postwar inflation. The book also argues that Marxist accounts do not constitute a serious alternative to the orthodox economic account.
