For nearly three-quarters of a century, central banks and policymakers have relied on the Phillips curve: the idea that inflation can be kept in check by disciplining worker power and putting restraints on employment levels. In 2026, does that theory, and the depoliticization of monetary policy that accompanies it, still make sense? Perhaps the real question isn’t whether every inflation spike has the same cause and cure, but whether central banks should use higher unemployment as their default tool to stabilize prices at all.

Jacobin’s David Moscrop recently talked with Silas Xuereb, a researcher and policy analyst with Canadians for Tax Fairness and a coauthor of the report The New Robber Barons: A Quarter Century of Wealth Concentration in Canada.