Dear all,
I’ve written an article about the Bank of England’s recent interest rate hike — which follows similar hikes by other major central banks, most notably the Federal Reserve. In it, I argue that the hikes have nothing to do with bringing down inflation, for the simple fact that the latter has nothing do with excess demand or excessive wage increases, but is driven by supply-side factors that are entirely beyond the control of central banks. What global technocrats are really worried about is that, as a result of the de-globalisation and reshoring that will inevitably see countries bring production lines and supply chains closer to home in the coming years, Western countries will be facing structurally tighter labour markets — which means greater labour bargaining power. They fear this not because it might lead to a wage-price spiral, which is unlikely, but because it would signal a shift in the labour-capital balance for the first time in half a century. In this context, raising interest rates and pursuing austerity should be seen as means to engineer a recession and artificially raising unemployment in order to pre-empt this potential rise in labour bargaining power.
Best regards,
Thomas Fazi
Website: thomasfazi.net
Twitter: @battleforeurope
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thomasfazi