The Peter McCormack Show

Episode: PMQs #006 – The Quiet Leviathan — Inflation Is Breaking Everything

Date: December 31, 2025
Host: Peter McCormack
Co-host: Conor McCormack

Episode Overview

This year-end episode pivots sharply from a planned review of 2025’s political highlights to an impassioned and deeply personal exploration of inflation and its insidious, society-breaking effects. Prompted by a haunting old Internet post and a viral video, Peter and Conor McCormack reflect on the personal and systemic devastation wrought by persistent monetary inflation, framing it as the central, existential crisis for Britain and the West. They argue that inflation quietly erodes prosperity, social mobility, and even hope—turning citizens into modern serfs—while politicians and elites either benefit or remain complicit.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. A Haunting 4chan Post Sparks the Conversation

• [00:24] The show is inspired by Conor sending Peter a “devastating” 2013 4chan post about the slow, invisible collapse of living standards—not through cataclysm, but by “every day, simple things becoming a little bit more expensive.”
• [04:32] Conor adds: “This is the real purpose of inflation. To slowly degrade the wealth of the working class and create a feudal state. Inflation is an asset to the money changers, asset holders, hedge fund managers and the like. It is a poison to the working man.”

2. Inflation as the Single Root Crisis

• Peter and Conor both argue that all major issues—politics, social strife, inequality—are downstream of inflation.
• [05:15] “Every issue that we are facing as a people, as a continent, as a country comes down to one thing. Inflation. Don’t mess with our money supply.” – Conor
• Peter contends:
  • Prosperity enables generosity; when inflation erodes prosperity, social division increases.
  • Politicians avoid addressing inflation because fixing it conflicts with their pursuit of power.
  • “Altruism itself is a function of prosperity.” – Peter [06:01]

3. Personal Stories: Generational Decline in Living Standards

• [08:41] Peter compares his parents’ ability to raise a family on modest wages to how today’s families struggle for the same with much higher costs:
  • “Neither of them on a wealthy salary…they managed to have two more, moved twice…holiday every year…that life is now unattainable for equivalent wages. Why? Inflation. There’s literally no other argument.”

4. The Ethics (and Guilt) of Benefiting from Inflation

• Peter is candid about his own position:
  • “I absolutely 100% know that next year in the US they’ve got midterms coming…Trump is going to juice the market…that juicing…creates inflation…And I know I’m going to benefit from it.” – [10:24]
  • “It sucks to win while everyone else is losing.” [11:49]
• Rich people know this, but “don’t call it out and don’t explain it.”
• “If you’re somebody who benefits from inflation, you have an ethical duty to explain what it is so people understand…You are getting wealthier off the back of other people getting materially poorer. That’s what inflation is. That’s what it does. There’s no other argument.” [12:21]

5. Political Avoidance and Perpetuation

• Peter singles out politicians like Zach Polanski and “Gary Government” for focusing on “tax the rich” slogans instead of the root issue:
  • [15:02] “If you do not end inflation, not only are you making it worse for the poor, you’re going to make more people poor. This is why the middle class is collapsing.”
• All politics, right and left, largely amounts to a “defense of power” rather than genuine solutions to inflation.

6. Insidious Impact on Society and Culture

• Inflation degrades the quality of goods, social trust, and everyday happiness:
  • “It’s a cancer that eats everything good in society. Everything is getting worse.” – Peter [17:39]
• Examples:
  • Lower food and service quality
  • Small businesses forced to cut quality just to survive
  • Family formation, homeownership, and future planning are increasingly out of reach

7. Exporting Inflation & The Global View

• [21:10] Peter explains how developed countries export inflation to the developing world via debt and financial dominance, worsening global inequality:
  • “If we had a 50% currency devaluation overnight…your wages would buy half what they do tomorrow…That happens routinely in the Third World.”

8. Political Dead Ends and Systemic Pessimism

• Neither right nor left parties address the real crisis; all promise improvements but perpetuate the system.
• “None of it matters apart from this. If you don’t fix this, everything else is a distraction.” – Conor [04:11]
• Both warn of a future with even sharper super-rich enclaves (“Saint Barts filled with superyachts”) as living standards for ordinary people erode further.
• “Everything’s going to be like a little simmering flame burning away.” – Peter [34:17]

9. Call for Civil Disobedience, Constitutional Reform & Mass Realization

• Peter suggests it may take mass protest and constitutional constraint to force politicians into fiscal discipline:
  • “If we could bind government to not grow the debt…we may have a generation of pain to get back to a place where…the generation after can have something.” [41:02]
• He laments generational selfishness:
  • “Our collective job is to leave the world better than we had it for our kids. And we are demonstrably not doing that.” [27:55]

10. Vox Populi: Viral Expression of Public Discontent

• [46:27] The hosts play a viral video of a young woman angry about an £8 orange juice, using it as a symbol of grassroots exasperation with price rises and political failure.

11. Final Rallying Cry: Refuse to Consent, Raise Awareness

• Peter closes with a direct challenge: abandon the “lesser of two evils” electoral mindset, refuse to consent to the system, and make fighting inflation the only political priority:
  • "We have to stop consenting to this bullshit over and over again. You want a better country, tell them no more. Don’t vote for another fucking party…We cannot vote our way out of this. The incentives of government don’t change. We have to bind them to constraints.” [48:53]
  • “I’d love to build a massive coalition of people who said, I’m with you, Pete. Fuck these people. I’m not voting either. Fuck your shit. I’m not playing this game. I’m not fucking doing it.” [52:18]

Notable Quotes & Moments (with Timestamps)

• On living through the collapse:
  • “There will be no collapse…It’s far more insidious than that…Every day, simple things will become a little bit more expensive...This is the collapse, the reduction of the American man into a feudal serf…incapable of feeling love or hate.” – 4chan post, read by Peter [00:49]
• Summing up the theme:
  • “Nothing matters apart from this. If you don’t fix this, everything else is a distraction.” – Conor [04:11]
  • “Inflation is going to kill us. The centralization of government, the access to the money…the money printer is going to destroy us as a society.” – Peter [06:19]
• Personal impact:
  • “It sucks to win while everyone else is losing.” – Peter [11:49]
• Ethical imperative for the wealthy:
  • “If you’re somebody who benefits from inflation, you have an ethical duty to explain what it is so people understand…It is theft, let’s call it exactly what it is. We are stealing from the poor and the middle class to make the rich richer.” – Peter [12:21]
• Describing political failure:
  • “If you do not end inflation, not only are you making it worse for the poor, you’re going to make more people poor. This is why the middle class is collapsing.” – Peter [15:02]
• On exported inflation:
  • “A large amount of our inflation [is exported] to the Third World.” – Peter [21:10]
• On the futility of electoral politics:
  • “You cannot fix this from the inside. None of it matters.” – Peter [44:32]
• Closing call:
  • “This country doesn’t work anymore. We can fix it. They won’t fix it. It’s down to us…You want a better country, tell them no more…We cannot vote our way out of this…the incentives of government don’t change. We have to bind them to constraints.” – Peter [48:53 / 52:18]

Important Timestamps

• [00:24] Reading of the 4chan “collapse” post
• [04:32] The real purpose of inflation
• [08:41] Personal family history vs. modern reality
• [12:21] Ethical duty for the rich regarding inflation
• [17:39] Inflation as a “cancer that eats everything”
• [21:10] Exporting inflation to the developing world
• [27:55] Intergenerational duty and selfishness
• [34:17] “Simmering flame” metaphor for gradual collapse
• [41:02] The need for constitutional fiscal constraints
• [46:27] Viral orange juice video segment
• [48:53 / 52:18] Final rally and refusal to consent

Conclusion & Tone

Frank, angry, sometimes despairing but also hopeful, the episode urges listeners to recognize inflation as the true, all-consuming threat to prosperity and freedom. Peter and Conor issue a rallying call for mass awareness and action, refusing to accept “lesser evil” politics and emphasizing collective responsibility towards future generations.

Peter’s final words:

“This country doesn’t work anymore. We can fix it. They won’t fix it. It’s down to us…Love you, have a great new year. Let’s go make 2026 bang the government.” [53:00]