Loucura monetárica circa 1780

Este artigo do The Economist leva-nos atrás no tempo até ao século XVIII, ainda antes da revolução francesa. Fala-nos como o despesismo da corte do Rei Sol colocou a França numa complicada situação económica e como as tentativas de re-inflar a economia através do papel moeda fracassaram.

Claro que desta vez vai ser diferente...

So a vicious circle was created, in which a growing money supply was needed to bolster the share price of the Mississippi company and a rising share price was needed to maintain confidence in the system of paper money. You can see parallels with recent times, in which money was lent on the back of rising asset prices, and higher prices gave banks the confidence to lend more money.

When the scheme faltered Law resorted to a number of rescue packages, many of which have their echoes 300 years later. One was for the bank to guarantee to buy shares in the Mississippi company at a set price (think of the various government asset-purchase schemes today). Then the company took over the bank (a rescue along the lines of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac). Finally there were restrictions on the amount of gold and silver that could be owned (something America tried in the 1930s).