Financial news November 2021

I also covered the news in the first Finrestra episode of December:

Government debt and inflation

Do deficits automatically lead to default or high inflation? No.

Here are some good reads:

Will deficit spending lead to inflation? There is a difference between developed and developing countries.

Who pays for this? How the United States dealt with its national debt after the Second World War.

Historical lessons from large increases in government debt. The debt was set aside in a sinking fund for repayment at a later date.

Inflation is #VALUE!

What is the inflation rate during and after lockdowns?

Inflation is already hard to measure in normal times, as I discussed in Bankers are people, too (page 126-129).

But the corona crisis adds further complications. Some services are unavailable due to the corona lockdown, for example restaurant visits and air travel. To discourage hoarding, supermarkets stopped offering discounts.

The abrupt shock causes headaches for statisticians.

For more, you should read Claire Jones’ Alphaville post on the fuzzy inflation figures.