My Take | Welcome to the 21st century feudalism
- Every major global crisis, whether viral or financial, has become an excuse in developed countries to transfer unprecedented wealth to the rich but incur massive public debt for the poor
I once read an investment book claiming every big crisis is an opportunity to make a killing. But the author at least presupposed some investment smarts and nerves. You don’t need them any more.
Nowadays, the major central banks, led by the US Federal Reserve, and Western governments, led by Washington, will respond by flooding the markets with liquidity. You can’t lose, so long as you keep your cool during the initial asset price plunge.
According to a new study by Credit Suisse, more than 5 million people around the world have become US-dollar millionaires since the start of the global Covid-19 pandemic early last year. A rising tide of liquidity raises all boats.
You think those were clever investors. No, we just happened to have some spare cash and a property or two bought early enough from the last decade, before the American real estate bubble blew up and triggered the last global financial crisis.
Everywhere in the world, the poor have become poorer during the global health crisis. Well, many of them are dead now.