Curiosidade do dia

Na revista The Economist desta semana um aviso, "The coming debt emergency".

O artigo alerta para a emergência da dívida pública nos países desenvolvidos, que vivem muito acima das suas possibilidades. Governos enfrentam défices insustentáveis, envelhecimento populacional, aumento de despesas sociais e defesa, bem como pressão para reduzir impostos. A inflação surge como a via mais provável - ainda que destrutiva — para lidar com a dívida. O texto discute os limites do crescimento, as políticas populistas e a dificuldade de equilibrar receitas e despesas, lembrando os riscos de seguir o caminho de países como a Argentina. Conclui que o futuro dependerá da forma como sociedades ricas gerirem esta encruzilhada: aceitar medidas de austeridade e responsabilidade ou deslizar para crises repetidas.

"It is therefore increasingly likely that governments will instead resort to inflation and financial repression to reduce the real value of their high debts, as they did in the decades after the second world war. The machinery for such a strategy is in place at central banks, which have a large footprint in bond markets. Already, populists such as Mr Trump and Nigel Farage in Britain attack their country's central banks with proposals that would weaken the defences against inflation.

...

All the more reason to think ahead and reflect on how inflation harms the economy and society. It redistributes wealth unfairly: from creditors to debtors; from those with cash and bonds to those who own real assets such as houses; and from those who agree on contracts and wages in cash terms to those wily enough to anticipate higher prices.

...

In the 20th century Argentina, plagued by inflation, went from being one of the world's richest young countries to a middle-income economy that lurched from one crisis to the next. The competition that raged in Buenos Aires was not over who could innovate or be the most productive, but over who could capture the state and exploit its power to help them avoid inflation's confiscatory effects. That is the future for places where leaders deny or avoid budget constraints in their pursuit of redistribution." 

Ninguém dá descanso ao meu gato virtual, são horrores atrás de horrores.

 Aquilo a que alguns chamaram de "rinocerontes cinzentos".