You might think inflation is bad locally, but in Argentina it’s 114%. Why? The state can’t raise tax revenue, but it also can’t borrow because it has repeatedly defaulted on sovereign debt so nobody will lend them squat. It could try to export more but successive isolationist governments have cut it off from global trade. So what did it do? It printed money. Since 2019 the cash in circulation has quadrupled.
‘Ah’ says the Economist podcast presenter, knowingly. ‘So it’s all this printing of cash that’s causing the inflation problem.’
Not a mention of workers’ wage demands causing inflation. Governments love to blame workers, but economics journalists know perfectly well what the reality is.