Ten years ago, trillions of dollars of advanced-economy government debt traded at a negative real interest rate. Deflation, not inflation, was the euro zone’s main problem, and central bank researchers wondered where all the inflation had gone. They found it again in Covid-19 and the war in Ukraine. Inflation had merely been dormant, not dead, we discovered. Now President Donald Trump’s tariffs augur still-higher prices.

It is delusional to think that the Trump administration will devise a viable, let alone sensible, trade policy before its 90-day pause on “reciprocal” tariffs ends. Before prices spike and the economy starts shrinking, legislators and business leaders must recognize that there is no strategy and respond accordingly.

As temperatures rise and countries back off their decarbonization efforts, we must confront a reality central banks can’t correct