I like this article about the wrong kind of inflation by Roger Bootle
Or as his cleaner said:
“It’s not the inflation they need to sort out, Mr Bootle, it’s the rising prices!”
Essentially, the wrong kind of inflation is  cost-push inflation. This inflation is due to rising costs of production, such as rising energy prices, rising transport costs, imported inflation and rising food prices. This inflation causes a shift to the left of short run aggregate supply. A simple SRAS / AD diagram shows how this kind of inflation also causes a fall in real GDP.
Cost push inflation, causing rising prices and falling real GDP.  (note some textbooks may show SRAS as a straight-line, but the principle is the same)
This wrong kind of inflation leads to a fall in living standards. Â Since 2008, the UK has seen a fall in real wages. We have had the worst of both worlds – rising prices, but falling incomes (or at least stagnant incomes)
This bad type of inflation doesn’t cause a rise in wages. But, a fall in real wages. We may laugh at Mrs Bootle’s cleaner, but in a way she might be trying to say, inflation isn’t a problem, if money wages keep up. If money wages grow faster than inflation, then we can afford the rising prices. Our income has increased to meet the higher cost of living.


Tejvan Pettinger studied PPE at LMH, Oxford University.