The economist Isabella Weber is best known for her work on what is often called “seller’s inflation,” the ability of firms with market power to hike prices and boost profits during an emergency. During and after the COVID-19 pandemic, Weber was one of the loudest voices criticizing those who treated inflation purely as a product of too much demand, earning the censure of establishment economists in the process. Six years on, her arguments have been largely vindicated. It is clear that while constraints to supply did cause some prices to spike, the resulting cost shocks coordinated corporate pricing that spread inflation across the whole economy.

In her new book, Anti-Fascist Economics: In Defense of Affordability, Dignity, and Democracy, she turns to an equally pressing political issue: What is needed to stem the rising tide of far-right extremism? Her answer is an alternative economic playbook, building on her earlier work, which puts affordability of essentials and dignity at its center.

Weber spoke to Jacobin about what an economic system that prioritizes ordinary people’s material needs over corporate profits would look like, and how it could contribute to halting the march of what some have called fascism in its tracks.