b'\\u201cOne can usually pretend that there is a logic to the distribution of wealth \\u2014 that behind a person\\u2019s prosperity lies some rational basis, whether it is that person\\u2019s hard work, skill and farsightedness or some ancestor\\u2019s,\\u201d writes J. Bradford DeLong. \\u201cInflation \\u2014 even moderate inflation \\u2014 strips the mask.\\u201d\\n\\nDeLong is an economic historian at the University of California, Berkeley, a former deputy assistant secretary of the Treasury and the author of \\u201cSlouching Towards Utopia\\u201d \\u2014 a new book about the wave of economic growth that transformed the world in the 20th century. In it, he argues, among other things, that inflation isn\\u2019t just economically damaging; it\\u2019s one of the most destabilizing, destructive forces in all of politics. Left unchecked, it has the power to swing elections, erode the foundations of core social institutions and usher in wholesale changes in political and economic regimes.\\n\\n[You can listen to this episode of \\u201cThe Ezra Klein Show\\u201d on Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google or wherever you get your podcasts.]\\n\\nThat\\u2019s exactly what happened the last time inflation was this high. In DeLong\\u2019s telling, the inflation crisis of the 1970s was weaponized to discredit the reigning New Deal economic order and helped give rise to the small government, pro-market political turn of the 1980s \\u2014 the consequences of which we are living with today. So I wanted to have DeLong on the show to walk me through that story and some of the questions it raises: Why is inflation is so uniquely politically destructive? What are the right \\u2014 and wrong \\u2014 lessons to take from the experience of the 1970s? What kinds of political transformations could today\\u2019s inflation could bring about?\\n\\nWe also discuss why inflation spiraled out of control in the 1970s (and whether it could have been stopped sooner), the efficacy of price controls as a way of taming inflation, why DeLong believes it\\u2019s a mistake to take the 1970s comparisons too literally, how unchecked inflation can decimate social trust, how economic thinking became obsessed with \\u201cmoochers\\u201d and \\u201cslackers\\u201d in the 1980s and \\u201990s, whether the 2007-08 financial crisis brought an end to the neoliberal era, what DeLong would say to his younger self serving in the early Clinton administration and more.\\n\\nBook Recommendations:\\n\\nThe Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order by Gary Gestle\\n\\nFree Market by Jacob Soll\\n\\nAdam Smith\\u2019s America by Glory M. Liu\\n\\nThoughts? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com. (And if you\'re reaching out to recommend a guest, please write \\u201cGuest Suggestion" in the subject line.)\\n\\nYou can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of \\u201cThe Ezra Klein Show\\u201d at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast, and you can find Ezra on Twitter @ezraklein. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs.\\n\\n\\u201cThe Ezra Klein Show\\u201d is produced by Emefa Agawu, Annie Galvin, Jeff Geld and Rog\\xe9 Karma. Fact-checking by Michelle Harris, Rollin Hu, Mary Marge Locker and Kate Sinclair. Original music by Isaac Jones. Mixing by Jeff Geld and Sonia Hererro. Audience strategy by Shannon Busta. Special thanks to Kristin Lin and Kristina Samulewski.'