Inflation and the Family | Jeff Degner

Jeffrey Degner brings monetary economics to a subject economists rarely touch: the family. Surveying the global retreat from marriage and childbearing, he notes that the standard explanations — job instability, financialization, rising inequality, weakened contracts — all point back to inflationary monetary policy. Drawing on his book Inflation and the Family, he traces how persistent money growth builds an "inflation culture" of debt, short-termism, and Cantillon-effect inequality, then extends the analysis to fiscal and regulatory intervention. His conclusion: all intervention is family intervention, and civil society cannot be restored by the state that eroded it. Recorded at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, on July 22, 2026. Mises University is the world's leading instructional program in the Austrian School of economics, and is the essential training ground for economists who are looking beyond the mainstream. 0:00 Intro: The Political Economy of the Family 1:26 The Data: Fewer and Later Marriages 4:34 Falling Fertility, Childlessness, and Divorce 8:05 Mises on Marriage and the Welfare State 11:49 Gary Becker and the Economics of Fertility 15:36 Charles Murray: Coming Apart and Marriage as a Luxury Good 18:41 Inequality, Job Instability, and the Fed 21:55 The Inflation Culture Defined 28:57 The Monetary Policy Channel 33:32 The Fiscal Policy Channel: A Taxation Culture 38:13 The Regulatory Policy Channel: A Bureaucratic Culture 42:32 State-Sponsored Culture and the Family Find free books, daily articles, podcasts, lecture series, and everything about the Austrian School of Economics at https://Mises.org​​. X ► https://x.com/mises/ Facebook ►   / mises.institute   Instagram ►   / misesinstitute   SoundCloud ►   / misesmedia   Apple Podcasts ► https://podcasts.apple.com/us/artist/... Rumble ► https://rumble.com/c/c-2212754 Odysee ► https://odysee.com/@mises/ Podcasts ► https://mises.org/podcasts