Inflation: What It Is, Why It’s Bad, and How to Fix It explains what’s behind the worst inflationary storm in more than forty years–one that is dominating the headlines and shaking Americans by their pocketbooks.

The cost-of-living explosion since the COVID pandemic has raised alarms about a possible return of a 1970’s-style “Great Inflation.” Some observers even fear a descent into the kind of Weimar-style hyperinflation that has torn apart so many nations. Is this true? If so, what should be done? How should we prepare for the future?

Inflation answers these and other questions in an engaging discussion that draws on the singular expertise of Steve Forbes, chairman of Forbes Media, acclaimed for his insights on money and the economy; Nathan Lewis, internationally renowned expert on money and taxation; and author and journalist Elizabeth Ames.

The authors say that today’s problems can be solved by discarding longstanding beliefs that helped bring on the current crisis. They include the notion that central banks can create prosperity through artificially creating money “out of thin air,” and also that economic “stability” requires “a little inflation.” Such ideas for decades have been Holy Writ in official Washington. Inflation shows why they are misguided. The book also explains why the current rage for heedless money-printing advocated by left-wing advocates of so-called Modern Monetary Theory is likely to lead the nation–and the world–down the road to disaster.

Packed with examples from the headlines and from history, Inflation is a unique, real-world exploration of the subject that addresses everyday concerns of Americans under siege by rising prices, including steps you should take to protect your wealth.

Inflation is essential listening for everyone seeking to navigate these tumultuous times.

***Updated content to coincide with the public television documentary, In Money We Trust***
Why a return to sound money is our only hope for a true recovery and a healthy global economy
Few topics are as misunderstood today as the subject of money. Since the U.S. abandoned a gold-linked dollar more than four decades ago, the world’s governments have slid into a dangerous ignorance of the fundamental monetary principles that guided the world’s most successful economies for centuries. Today’s wrong-headed monetary policies are now setting the stage for a new global economic and social catastrophe that could rival the recent financial crisis and even the horrors of the 1930s. Coauthored by Steve Forbes, one of the world’s leading experts on finance, Money shows you why that doesn’t need to happen–and how to prevent it.
After reading this entertaining and hugely well-informed book, you will know more about money than most people in the highest government positions today. Money explains why a return to sound money is absolutely essential if the U.S. and other nations are ever to overcome today’s problems. Stable money, Steve Forbes and Elizabeth Ames argue, is the only way to a true recovery and a stable and prosperous economy.
Today’s system of fluctuating “fiat” money, in which governments manipulate the value of the dollar and other currencies, has been responsible for the biggest economic failures of recent decades, including the 2008 financial crisis, from whose effects we continue to suffer. The Obama/Bernanke/Yellen Federal Reserve and its unstable dollar policies are accelerating our course toward disaster, the authors show, in numerous convincing examples. In Money, Forbes and Ames answer these crucial questions:
What is the difference between money and value?What is real wealth?
How does sound money contribute to a well-functioning society?
How have our money policy errors led to the current problems in global financial markets?
What can we do now to reestablish the strength of the dollar and other currencies?
The authors argue that the most effective way to return to a sound money policy and a healthy economy is to put the dollar back on a gold standard, and they outline the several different forms a gold standard could take. They also share invaluable suggestions for how to preserve our wealth and where to invest our money.
Money is essential reading for anyone interested in this crucially important subject.

***Updated content to coincide with the public television documentary, In Money We Trust***
Why a return to sound money is our only hope for a true recovery and a healthy global economy
Few topics are as misunderstood today as the subject of money. Since the U.S. abandoned a gold-linked dollar more than four decades ago, the world’s governments have slid into a dangerous ignorance of the fundamental monetary principles that guided the world’s most successful economies for centuries. Today’s wrong-headed monetary policies are now setting the stage for a new global economic and social catastrophe that could rival the recent financial crisis and even the horrors of the 1930s. Coauthored by Steve Forbes, one of the world’s leading experts on finance, Money shows you why that doesn’t need to happen–and how to prevent it.
After reading this entertaining and hugely well-informed book, you will know more about money than most people in the highest government positions today. Money explains why a return to sound money is absolutely essential if the U.S. and other nations are ever to overcome today’s problems. Stable money, Steve Forbes and Elizabeth Ames argue, is the only way to a true recovery and a stable and prosperous economy.
Today’s system of fluctuating “fiat” money, in which governments manipulate the value of the dollar and other currencies, has been responsible for the biggest economic failures of recent decades, including the 2008 financial crisis, from whose effects we continue to suffer. The Obama/Bernanke/Yellen Federal Reserve and its unstable dollar policies are accelerating our course toward disaster, the authors show, in numerous convincing examples. In Money, Forbes and Ames answer these crucial questions:
What is the difference between money and value?What is real wealth?
How does sound money contribute to a well-functioning society?
How have our money policy errors led to the current problems in global financial markets?
What can we do now to reestablish the strength of the dollar and other currencies?
The authors argue that the most effective way to return to a sound money policy and a healthy economy is to put the dollar back on a gold standard, and they outline the several different forms a gold standard could take. They also share invaluable suggestions for how to preserve our wealth and where to invest our money.
Money is essential reading for anyone interested in this crucially important subject.

Based on an extraordinary collaboration between Steve Forbes, chairman, CEO, and editor in chief of Forbes Media, and classics professor John Prevas, Power Ambition Glory provides intriguing comparisons between six great leaders of the ancient world and contemporary business leaders.
-Great leaders not only have vision but know how to build structures to effect it. Cyrus the Great did so in creating an empire based on tolerance and inclusion, an approach highly unusual for his or any age. Jack Welch and John Chambers built their business empires using a similar approach, and like Cyrus, they remain the exceptions rather than the rule.
-Great leaders know how to build consensus and motivate by doing what is right rather than what is in their self-interest. Xenophon put personal gain aside to lead his fellow Greeks out of a perilous situation in Persia-something very similar to what Lou Gerstner and Anne Mulcahy did in rescuing IBM and Xerox.
-Character matters in leadership. Alexander the Great had exceptional leadership skills that enabled him to conquer the eastern half of the ancient world, but he was ultimately destroyed by his inability to manage his phenomenal success. The corporate world is full of similar examples, such as the now incarcerated Dennis Kozlowski, who, flush with success at the head of his empire, was driven down the highway of self-destruction by an out-of-control ego.
-A great leader is one who challenges the conventional wisdom of the day and is able to think outside the box to pull off amazing feats. Hannibal did something no one in the ancient world thought possible: he crossed the Alps in winter to challenge Rome for control of the ancient world. That same innovative way of thinking enabled Serge Brin and Larry Page of Google to challenge and best two formidable competitors, Microsoft and Yahoo!
-A leader must have ambition to succeed, and Julius Caesar had plenty of it. He set Rome on the path to empire, but his success made him believe he was a living god and blinded him to the dangers that eventually did him in. The parallels with corporate leaders and Wall Street master-of-the-universe types are numerous, but none more salient than Hank Greenberg, who built the AIG insurance empire only to be struck down at the height of his success by the corporate daggers of his directors.
-And finally, leadership is about keeping a sane and modest perspective in the face of success and remaining focused on the fundamentals-the nuts and bolts of making an organization work day in and day out. Augustus saved Rome from dissolution after the assassination of Julius Caesar and ruled it for more than forty years, bringing the empire to the height of its power. What made him successful were personal humility, attention to the mundane details of building and maintaining an infrastructure, and the understanding of limits. Augustus set Rome on a course of prosperity and stability that lasted for centuries, just as Alfred Sloan, using many of the same approaches, built GM into the leviathan that until recently dominated the automotive business.

Conservative icon Steve Forbes returns with his most powerful and provocative ideas yet
The United States has been through one of the most tumultuous decades in recent history. Polls show people on both sides of the ideological divide believe that the country has gone off track. If something isn’t done quickly, Americans face a bleak future-continuing decline and disarray in a world that grows ever more dangerous.
Steve Forbes, two-time candidate for the GOP presidential nomination and Forbes Media Chairman, explains how today’s malaise has been caused by years of Obama’s destructive policies, a broken tax system, and the Federal Reserve’s Soviet-style controls over credit and money.
The problems are challenging. But Forbes tells us that, with the right policies, the country can bounce back faster than people think. In this compelling and much-needed book, he sets forth a three-part plan to revive America.
Patient-Driven Healthcare: The problem with healthcare, Forbes says, is that Big Government, health insurance companies, and employers are in control, not you, the patient. The key to getting high-quality, affordable healthcare is increasing competition and choice, and putting patients in charge.
Enact a Flat Tax: Today’s complex, corrupt tax code must be scrapped. The best answer is a simple Flat Tax. Forbes shows how this very bold reform would free America from the IRS and unleash an unprecedented wave of prosperity.
A Sound Dollar as Good as Gold: With its ever-fluctuating “fiat” dollar, the Federal Reserve has blocked a real recovery and is the prime cause of today’s stagnant, crisis-ridden economy. The answer? Take the dollar out of the hands of the Washington politicians by returning to a monetary system with the value of the dollar linked to gold.
A clear and vital guide, Reviving America shows how the United States can recover the optimism and entrepreneurial dynamism that made it the greatest nation in history. These are 21st century solutions-not the failed ideas of the recent past. Forbes offers specific ideas and plans, not generalities and bromides, and is challenging policy makers to do the same.
Steve Forbes is Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of Forbes Media.
The company encompasses ForbesLife, Forbes Europe, Forbes Asia and Forbes licensee editions published in over 37 countries. The company also publishes a number of investment newsletters.
Forbes.com reaches nearly 70 million users each month.
The company’s flagship publication, Forbes, is the nation’s leading business magazine, with a circulation of more than 900,000.
A widely respected economic prognosticator, Mr. Forbes is the only writer to have won the highly prestigious Crystal Owl Award four times. The prize was formerly given by U.S. Steel Corporation to the financial journalist whose economic forecasts for the coming year proved most accurate.
In both 1996 and 2000, Mr. Forbes campaigned vigorously for the Republican nomination for the presidency. Key to his platform were a flat tax, medical savings accounts, a new Social Security system for working Americans, parental choice of schools for their children, term limits and a strong national defense. Mr. Forbes continues to energetically promote this agenda.
Mr. Forbes’ book, Money: How the Destruction of the Dollar Threatens the Global Economy – and What We Can Do About It, co-authored by Elizabeth Ames (McGraw-Hill Professional), was published in June 2014 and received the coveted Leonard E. Read

Conservative icon Steve Forbes returns with his most powerful and provocative ideas yet
The United States has been through one of the most tumultuous decades in recent history. Polls show people on both sides of the ideological divide believe that the country has gone off track. If something isn’t done quickly, Americans face a bleak future-continuing decline and disarray in a world that grows ever more dangerous.
Steve Forbes, two-time candidate for the GOP presidential nomination and Forbes Media Chairman, explains how today’s malaise has been caused by years of Obama’s destructive policies, a broken tax system, and the Federal Reserve’s Soviet-style controls over credit and money.
The problems are challenging. But Forbes tells us that, with the right policies, the country can bounce back faster than people think. In this compelling and much-needed book, he sets forth a three-part plan to revive America.
Patient-Driven Healthcare: The problem with healthcare, Forbes says, is that Big Government, health insurance companies, and employers are in control, not you, the patient. The key to getting high-quality, affordable healthcare is increasing competition and choice, and putting patients in charge.
Enact a Flat Tax: Today’s complex, corrupt tax code must be scrapped. The best answer is a simple Flat Tax. Forbes shows how this very bold reform would free America from the IRS and unleash an unprecedented wave of prosperity.
A Sound Dollar as Good as Gold: With its ever-fluctuating “fiat” dollar, the Federal Reserve has blocked a real recovery and is the prime cause of today’s stagnant, crisis-ridden economy. The answer? Take the dollar out of the hands of the Washington politicians by returning to a monetary system with the value of the dollar linked to gold.
A clear and vital guide, Reviving America shows how the United States can recover the optimism and entrepreneurial dynamism that made it the greatest nation in history. These are 21st century solutions-not the failed ideas of the recent past. Forbes offers specific ideas and plans, not generalities and bromides, and is challenging policy makers to do the same.
Steve Forbes is Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of Forbes Media.
The company encompasses ForbesLife, Forbes Europe, Forbes Asia and Forbes licensee editions published in over 37 countries. The company also publishes a number of investment newsletters.
Forbes.com reaches nearly 70 million users each month.
The company’s flagship publication, Forbes, is the nation’s leading business magazine, with a circulation of more than 900,000.
A widely respected economic prognosticator, Mr. Forbes is the only writer to have won the highly prestigious Crystal Owl Award four times. The prize was formerly given by U.S. Steel Corporation to the financial journalist whose economic forecasts for the coming year proved most accurate.
In both 1996 and 2000, Mr. Forbes campaigned vigorously for the Republican nomination for the presidency. Key to his platform were a flat tax, medical savings accounts, a new Social Security system for working Americans, parental choice of schools for their children, term limits and a strong national defense. Mr. Forbes continues to energetically promote this agenda.
Mr. Forbes’ book, Money: How the Destruction of the Dollar Threatens the Global Economy – and What We Can Do About It, co-authored by Elizabeth Ames (McGraw-Hill Professional), was published in June 2014 and received the coveted Leonard E. Read