Over the course of my hour-long conversation with Isabella Weber, the University of Massachusetts Amherst economist continued to resist the urge to say, “I told you so.” But such a declaration would have been well warranted.

With just days to go in 2021, Weber made waves both inside and outside the academy with the publication of a short article in the Guardian entitled “Could strategic price controls help fight inflation?” At a time when inflation was nearing a forty-year high, Weber thought she was asking a reasonable question. The entire political spectrum seemingly disagreed. The National Review called her ideas “perverse.” The New York Times’ Paul Krugman was only a bit more generous — he called her “truly stupid.”

Over the last few years, Weber hasn’t gotten apologies from her early critics, but she has gotten an audience in the mainstream press (her latest op-ed appeared in the New York Times just yesterday), among policymakers, and even with the general public.