Lionel Shriver Lionel Shriver

The looming monetary apocalypse

Bubbles pop — it's when, not if

OK, I finally watched Netflix’s Don’t Look Up. Surprisingly, I enjoyed it — especially before its effective subtitle for us thickos, THIS IS A METAPHOR FOR CLIMATE CHANGE, YOU F-ING MORONS. Otherwise, the film might have playfully dramatised the more general phenom of fiddling with celebrity bodices while Rome burns.

The comet at which I’m looking up could arrive far more immediately than perilous global warming. Money is in trouble. I’m not only referring to a cost-of-living crisis. Money itself is in trouble.

Let’s contemplate, to coin a phrase, a basket of deplorables. US inflation just hit 7.5 per cent, the highest in 40 years. UK inflation, now 5.5 per cent and the highest in 30 years, is expected to reach 7 per cent by spring. EU inflation is 5.1 per cent. All these indices are headed in one direction. Inflation is often described as a tax, but I have a better word for it: stealing.

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