In 1958, an economist from New Zealand, A. W. H. Phillips (1914–75), proposed that there was a trade-off between inflation and unemployment: the lower the unemployment rate, the higher was the rate of inflation. Governments simply had to choose the right balance between the two evils. He drew this conclusion by studying nominal wage rates and jobless rates in the UK between 1861 and 1957, which seemed to show the relationship of unemployment and inflation as a smooth curve. Economies did seem to work like this in the 1950s and 1960s, but then the relationship broke down. Now economists prefer to talk about the NAIRU, the lowest rate of unemployment at which inflation does not accelerate.