Tuesday, April 01, 2014

Creating wealth equally is proving impossible.

Inflation rate across the Eurozone dropped to 0.5% in March from 0.7% in February. How we in India would love prices to remain steady so that our earnings and savings would not keep losing value. But, after the lost decade in Japan, the European Central Bank fears deflation so there is talk of bond buying program like in the US and even negative deposit rates in which anyone saving money will have to pay the bank instead of earning interest on the savings. In Britain the Chancellor, George Osborne claimed that the economy was growing again because of the austerity measures enforced by the Conservative Party and not because of high levels of consumption based on high levels of debt, encouraged by interest rate at 0.5%. Is it? Because of the low interest rate property prices are soaring, much like they did in India 5 years ago when our economy was growing at 9% but unlike the Congress Party in India, which was boasting about growth, the Treasury in Britain is warning against a property price bubble. Such has been the rise in prices that people are now resorting to ' gazumping ' wherein the seller suddenly raises the asking price after having settled the sale of a property. When properties prices rise rents also rise along with it. That means young people, starting their working lives, are unable to buy their own houses and, having to pay high rents, means that they will never be able to save enough to buy their own homes. Large numbers of adults are having to live with their parents or need financial support. This is what happened here in India. Our so called growth was mainly dependent on a humongous property price bubble which increased employment in the construction industry, increased commodity prices and increased a sense of prosperity by increasing non productive income based on sale of land or increase in rents. Prosperity based solely on increase in asset prices concentrates wealth in the hands of a few, causes inflation and reduces growth of the economy. While growth rate for India has fallen to 4.7% Britain grew at 1.7% in 2013 which was lower than expected and there are concerns about whether this growth can be maintained. Seems that economists are unable to solve the riddle of how to grow an economy without causing inflation and increasing poverty. Communism, with its redistribution of wealth from the rich to the poor, was an utter failure because wealth has to be created before it can be redistributed and no one will work for peanuts. Wealth can only be created through exploitation which, in today's world, is unacceptable. No one has the answer.

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