Taoyuan Nights

News just in: Taiwanese inflation hits 6% (officially, of course - in the real world outside of politics, it’s far worse). Higher inflation means that lenders require higher interest rates to compensate them for the devaluation of the money they are lending - or they simply don’t lend. And higher interest rates mean… more problems for the housing market, besides the more obvious problem of people choosing to feed themselves, rather than starve in order to make their home loan repayment.

Meanwhile in other news, the government is going to combat inflation in house prices by … handing out free money every month to young couples to pay their rent or interest payments. Think about that for a moment… fighting inflation by handing out armfuls of money. Rather like trying to put out a fire by dousing it with petrol.

A more sensible way to make housing a realistic proposition for young people is to allow the market to correct naturally. After all, when houses get to 30% of what they are just now, young people won’t have many problems at all…

Ending on a cheery note: inflation is now rising faster than my salary, and the government is using the tax system to hand out giant armfuls of my money to other young people simply because they are married. Brilliant!