If you want to explain complex economic issues in a talk show, you can quickly slip on thin ice. Robert Habeck was the first to find out, after his "Maischberger" appearance, the impression was left that the Economics Minister didn't even know what bankruptcy was.

Now entrepreneur Frank Thelen has also suffered a small talk show crash. As a guest at Markus Lanz, the former "Lion's Cave" investor had to be told that he didn't know how inflation works and apparently had no idea about the economy either.

In his remarks, Thelen complained about the "excessive money printing policy" of recent years, which is now leading to high inflation, when journalist Ulrike Herrmann drove into his parade. "I think your analysis of inflation is completely wrong," Herrmann said. The high inflation is not caused by the state going into debt, but because energy is so expensive because Putin is shutting down the pipelines.

But that's not enough of the exchange of blows. When Thelen later insisted that the central banks' money printing fuels inflation, Herrmann dismissed him as the wrong economic theory and had long since been refuted. "If you're an entrepreneur and invest on the basis of a false monetary theory, then I see a problem there. It doesn't surprise me that you've gone broke several times," Herrmann then said personally. And: "If you don't even know where inflation comes from, it's really embarrassing." Boom, that was, at least verbally.

The excerpt of the conversation went so viral on social media that Thelen subsequently commented on the "false statements" of his talk show opponent in a Twitter clip. He even quotes the Federal Agency for Civic Education on the subject of money inflation as a condition for inflation, to prove that he is right ("Hence, unfortunately, the truth here").

What remains to be said is, firstly, that the high level of inflation is currently being driven primarily by skyrocketing energy prices. Second, low interest rates and accommodative central bank monetary policies also tend to favor high inflation rates (although we have just come out of a phase of low interest rates and low inflation). For this reason, the European Central Bank is currently trying to combat inflation with a significant increase in key interest rates. And thirdly, Thelen's earlier bankruptcies as a private entrepreneur have hardly anything to do with all of this. Maybe a talk show just isn't the best forum to discuss monetary theory seriously.