RUSSELL LAMBERTI: Ace’s quantitative teasing and the magic money tree
Ace Magashule bungled the words when calling for QE last week. Call it what you will: printing money is a recipe for hyperinflation and disaster
Last week, ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule announced that the ANC had resolved to do "quantity easing", by which he meant "quantitative easing" (QE), by which he meant "printing money", by which he meant, in a nutshell, "gimme".
That an ANC heavyweight would come out so brazenly for printing money came as a shock to many. It shouldn’t. The ANC’s kleptocratic wing has long coveted the Reserve Bank money machine, much to the socialist wing’s vexation. The socialist wing prefers the more orderly acquisition of lucre with obscene budget deficits, relentless tax hikes, suffocating regulation and audacious BEE deals. But the kleptos are less patient, preferring the more direct route of tenderpreneur fraud, bribery, misappropriating taxes and, they hope, eventually printing new, free money...
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