The UN has warned nations not to increase interest rates amidst rising inflation. This is a tactic that many in the West are currently pursuing, including in the US and UK.
Far be it from me to agree with the UN, largely a figure head that too often gives positions of power to colonizers and authoritarians, but they have this one correct. There is no reason to increase interest rates, of course it could eventually lead to a drop in inflation, however, it will also disproportionately impact the working classes and less economically developed nations and could lead to recessions, perhaps globally.
Unfortunately this is the track that institutions like the Federal Reserve are likely to take. Not because they want a global recession, though, again, that is a likely outcome. However, they want to check labor. Labor, especially unions, are having quite the resurgence recently due to extremely low unemployment in the United States. This is obviously not great for the owner class.
When workers have relatively open options to leave their jobs, they have much more bargaining power, combine that with the recent push for unionization in the United States and you have rich business owners running scared. This is the reason you see so much fear mongering on this topic.
The constant deluge of articles about issues such as “quiet quitting”, the “laziness of the workforce”, or the inability to get workers to return to the workplace in the middle of a pandemic, it’s all nonsense. Workers haven’t gotten lazier, they just have more leverage. It might be argued that owners have gotten greedier. This is why you saw seemingly endless complaints about workers during the COVID pandemic (which isn’t over we’ve just decided to unexist with the virus). All the while, a multitude of companies are posting record profits.
Calling this inflation is somewhat of a misnomer being that the supply chain is returning to normalcy and yet prices continue to rise in many markets. Not to mention, all of this is nothing new, CEOs and company boards have a fiduciary responsibility to their companies to continue to boost profits. That is why you have numerous business people literally praying for excuses to jack up prices, including Joe Manchin’s daughter driving up prices for a life saving drug (which costs around $10 dollars to manufacture, but is sold for hundreds).
The reason for this is simply greed. This is not an issue of inflation, but one of unregulated capitalism. This will also harm those seeking to buy or rent housing, again workers. Prices have been increasing for some time and increasing inflation will only continue to do so. Inevitably leading to more conservatives complaining that young people aren’t settling down cause their buying too much damn avocado toast.
These policies will also have consequences outside of the West. Being that most LEDCs attain loans from places like the United States, this will also heavily impact their economies and development. Though richer nations are predicted to also see negative impacts from an interest hike.
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development estimated that if the Fed raised key interest rate by one point, rich countries would see economic output drop by half a percentage point and poorer counties would see a 0.8 percent drop in economic output over the next three years.
The seemingly obvious solution is to implement price caps on essential goods, or even all good. Nationalize key industries such as oil and gas so that companies cannot toy with our stability, it really is a matter of national security. There seems no reason to allow capitalists to continue to milk those already deep in poverty. At this point it is just to allow the rich to revel in their sadomasochism. Watching the world burn while they profit.