Dreams of a perpetual motion monetary machine are being dashed, to be replaced by pain and disappointment. The US went under heavy monetary sedation in 2020 and hasn’t regained consciousness yet. It attempted to create an illusion of a perpetuum mobile: a state of affairs where it is possible to chaotically flood the markets with unlimited liquidity without suffering any consequences, all the while enjoying a fleeting sense of immortality. The markets are bubbling away, the budget deficit is unbounded, there is no inflation and all is sweetness and light!
At that time, the US federal government, beguiled by a feeling of invulnerability and suffering from a permanent lapse of reason, generated endless rescue plans. Helicopter money fluttered about endlessly: around $1 trillion in March to May of 2021; $1.2 trillion of infrastructure plans from November 7, 2021. There were dozens of such plans spawned into being by Biden et al.
When their faith in immortality reached its apogee, fear faded away, brains shut down, and $6 trillion was given away to all who could possibly soak it up for any sort of shoddy excuse. People were literally being forced to shut up and take the fake money.
Back then, in 2020 and in first half of 2021, when inflation was still low, it seemed that this state of affairs would last forever. It was being said at the time that inflation is temporary and being caused by various transitory and nonrecurring factors. These factors would go away, it was being said, and the situation would normalize. Now there is a new topic for such shameless banter: that there is no risk of recession—none at all! They are trying to manipulate public opinion using idiotic official predictions of 2.5% GDP growth for 2022.
In both cases they were dead wrong. Inflation is at a 40-year high while the economy has entered a terminal crisis. Standard procedures of reacting to it would be useless in finding an exit from it.
ClubOrlov 