Key facts:
The United States was already facing its worst inflation in decades before the war.
In Spain, prices in the energy sector have been climbing strongly.
The war between Russia and Ukraine is not just a couple of weeks old. Missiles and bombs have been falling and falling for months, without anyone on the planet (not even in Ukraine, the largest affected country) knowing about it. Sounds crazy, doesn’t it?
Well, this is what some politicians want their respective citizens and the entire planet to believe, when They point to Putin’s recent military move in Ukrainian territory as the cause of the extremely high inflation rates that they are going through. (for a long time) their economies.
This is the case of Pedro Sánchez, head of the Spanish government; and Joe Biden, President of the United States. Both have recently chosen to ignore their own actions and the long-standing inflation rates of their countries. They prefer to look the other way and have appealed to the wild card of the moment. do youDo prices go up without a brake? Economic problems? Ask no more: now it’s all Putin’s fault.
It matters little that in the European Union (Spain included) and in the United States the overwhelming response to the crisis generated by the pandemic was to inject money in an almost insane way. They increase the debt, print money without rhyme or reason for at least two years. But now the inflation was generated because Putin got into the Ukraine. The accounts do not give, right?
In Venezuela we call that “passing the buck.” It is said of the action of pinning one’s own faults on any external factor that one pleases. The reasons or the truth behind it matter little, as long as the person (in this case a government) can ignore the weight of his actions.
Putin, the retroactive culprit
“I’m going to do everything I can to minimize Putin’s price gouging here at home.” With those words, Biden recently announced his strategy to deal with the domestic inflation from the United States.
The problem is that his plan is very long-term, as various analysts point out; and that leaves aside the fact that The situation is not new. Calling it “Putin’s rise” limits the time range, as if it were a recent phenomenon.
The same approach has been taken by Sánchez, who went even further with his statements: «I think it is important not to confuse citizens, inflation and energy prices are the sole responsibility of Putin and his illegal war in Ukraine, it is the truth».
According to both positions, then, the whole world (starting with its own countries) it has been reacting economically to a war that had not even started. In other words, Putin is such a convenient culprit today that his guilt is even retroactive.
Recall that the head of the Kremlin announced the armed incursion into Ukrainian territory on February 24. Not even three weeks have passed, but that has caused all the inflation of the last two years….
Worst inflation in decades, a matter of three weeks?
Numbers don’t lie and they don’t have sides. Therefore, we go to them directly. It has already been said countless times in CriptoNoticias, because it is a situation that has been intensifying: inflation, both in the United States and in Spain, has been moving to historical levels. Even the rates of recent months have been the worst in decades.
In the case of the United States, the largest annual increase in inflation in the last 40 years was recorded in mid-February: 7.5% between January 2021 and 2022. For its part, Spain closed last year with its worst inflation in almost 30 years. years. Electric power, for a long time, has been the most affected in the European country.
Many attribute these recent inflation rates to the policies that have been implemented in both North America and Europe to respond to the economic crisis that originated at the beginning of the pandemic, in 2020. Biden was not in charge of the White House at the time, but neither is he like the dynamic has changed after his arrival.
In fact, according to what specialists such as Saifedean Ammous, author of the book “The Fiat Standard”, point out, inflation may have worsened recently, but the monetary policies that generate it they have decades repeating the same mistakes.
What is the question and why is the answer Bitcoin?
Governments are used to looking for scapegoats everywhere. It seems that every bad policy always has an external and very convenient culprit. Whether it was the pandemic before, or Putin now, the responsibilities and mistakes of a country’s economy do not weigh or are not recognized by its rulers.
Furthermore, this is not even a defense of Putin. Of course, his actions have an impact on the current economy, but we will see the greatest effects of the war in the medium and long term. Where the world is standing now comes from much further back.
Meanwhile, all of us Those of us who do not define anything in geopolitical and macroeconomic games are at the mercy of these errors.
Is a different world possible, where money is not in the hands as volatile as those of the Bidens, the Sánchez, the Putins?
The answer is already written more than a decade ago. For something, most governments have decided to see Bitcoin as a threat. Because, indeed, it is. At least, for a system that has already amply demonstrated its decline and poor results.
Bitcoin is everything governments and their money is not. No one can decide in bitcoin at a stroke to inject “greater liquidity” in the form of “aid” to the population (pandemic excuse), causing inflationary uncontrol in the monetary network. Therefore, if they make me choose between a money that goes with the character of its issuers and a neutral network… I’ll keep what is written in code.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article belong to its author and do not necessarily reflect those of CriptoNoticias.