Inflation is often treated as a technical malfunction-something to be corrected with interest rates, budget tightening, or short-term administrative controls. In Bangladesh, these tools have been used repeatedly. Inflation persists.
Inflation and the Hard Truths argues that this persistence is not a policy accident but a systemic outcome shaped by incentive structures, enforcement capacity, and coordination failures. Prices do not rise in a vacuum. They are formed along supply chains where market power, weak competition, selective enforcement, and fragmented governance interact-often blunting the effectiveness of otherwise sound policies.
Written by an economist but for a broad, policy-oriented audience, this book moves beyond textbook explanations to examine how inflation actually forms, spreads, and hardens in institutionally constrained and partially captured systems. It explains why conventional tools often stall, why growth alone does not guarantee price stability, and why inflation control cannot succeed without credible competition, accountability, and enforcement.
The book makes a clear, evidence-grounded case that inflation in Bangladesh can be stabilized and gradually reduced-without sacrificing growth-but only through a coordinated, whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach. It presents a practical framework linking monetary and fiscal policy with market oversight, competition policy, trade management, law enforcement, judicial accountability, and information-driven citizen engagement that reinforces policy credibility.
This is not a call for repression or austerity. It is a call for state capacity and governance effectiveness.
Inflation and the Hard Truths is for policymakers, students, journalists, business leaders, development practitioners, and citizens who want to understand why prices keep rising-and what it will truly take to tame the beast.
Table of Contents Why inflation matters?
A note to economists
Part I - Understanding the Beast Chapter 1: Inflation in Everyday Life Chapter 2: How Inflation Is Supposed to Work (and Why That Story Falls Short) Chapter 3: Bangladesh's Inflation Pattern -- What makes inflation persistent here Part II - Where the System Breaks Down Chapter 4: Supply Chains, Power, and Price FormationChapter 5: Syndicates, Patronage, and Market DistortionsChapter 6: The Limits of Monetary and Fiscal Policy Alone Part III - The Captured Economy Chapter 7: Inflation in a Captured SystemChapter 8: Ethics, Corruption, and Inflation Part IV - Taming the Beast Is Possible Chapter 9: Growth, Productivity, and Inflation ControlChapter 10: A Whole-of-Government Inflation StrategyChapter 11: Law, Accountability, and Deterrence Part V - Society as a Reform Force Chapter 12: Organized Citizens at the Choke PointsChapter 13: Organized Consumers and Market Discipline Part VI - The Policy Framework Chapter 14: A Coordinated Framework to Stabilize and Reduce InflationChapter 15: Political Will, Popular Support, and Reform SurvivalChapter 16: From Structural Inflation to Stability Conclusion: From a Captured System to a Capable State
