Hemingway presents inflation and war as expedients that political leaders may use when a country is badly governed. In his argument, both can create an appearance of renewed prosperity or purpose in the short term while leaving deeper economic and social damage behind. The word “panacea” is used critically: these measures are offered as apparent cures without addressing the underlying causes of national weakness.

The passage also connects economic policy with political incentives. Hemingway suggests that opportunists may favour measures whose immediate effects are visible and politically useful even when their eventual costs are severe. In the wider context of Notes on the Next War, the warning is directed particularly at leaders who can exploit economic distress, nationalism and military mobilisation to strengthen their position. The quotation therefore concerns both political economy and the dangers of short-term decision-making, especially when those making the decisions are insulated from their consequences.

Full quotation

“It removes the only possible check. No one man nor group of men incapable of fighting or exempt from fighting should in any way be given the power, no matter how gradually it is given them, to put this country or any country into war. The first panacea for a mismanaged nation is inflation of the currency; the second is war. Both bring a temporary prosperity; both bring a permanent ruin. But both are the refuge of political and economic opportunists.”