This 1985 book is a comparative study of the origins and experience of inflation from 1950 until the 1980s in the United States, United Kingdom, Japan, West Germany, France, and Italy, and in the world economy as a whole. It looks at the history of inflation, and the relationship of changes in rates of inflation and real income growth. Further chapters look at the kinds of inflationary impulse and their origins (particularly with regard to the money supply and the labour market), the role of expectations, the apparent effects of inflation on income distribution, the level of unemployment and the rate of economic growth. The final chapter looks at the effects on inflation of the depression of 1979–82, and draws the conclusions together. The book thus attempts a geographically broader study of inflationary experience than had previously been presented.