The eurozone needs to understand that if it decides to increase taxes to address the rising debt due to the COVID-19 response, its ability to recover will be irreparably damaged.
Governments can increase GDP numbers simply by spending more, and this can reduce debt as a percentage of GDP. But what if we calculate GDP using only private spending?
As the federal government embarks on racking up an estimated $3.7 trillion in extra debt this fiscal year alone, it’s critical for the public to understand just how destructive such action will be.
The new Fed policy proposals being floated carry significant political risk, because they enjoy support not just from the redistributionist left, but also “business conservatives” happy to raid our future to make their pain stop.
As states in various areas of the Continent embarked on centralization and territorialization in the fourteenth century, communities very often took up arms against forms of taxation. The Cornish Rebellion of 1497 against national taxation is an example of this trend.
Africa is in no position to bring a halt to economic activity. Urban poverty and huge debts present an apparent choice between rampant disease and mass impoverishment.
Whatever happens with the virus, the real story, the real historical change, is probably economic. Abenomics—Japan's ultra-Keynesian experiment—seems to be dead.
