MK and Chairman of the Economy Committee, David Bitan.
Calls to delay the war on inflation (Photo: Reuven Castro)
We experienced a lot of trolling in the last month, from all directions, but the peak, at least so far, happened last night, with two messages coming out one after the other.
The first, by the Chairman of the Economic Committee,
MK David Bitan
, who came to the defense of the young couples, who are having trouble meeting their mortgage payments, and called on the Governor of the Bank of Israel to moderate the frequent interest rate hikes: "Even if this lengthens the period of time required to lower inflation," he wrote , "The public is not up to the burden."
It wasn't long before
Foreign Minister Eli Cohen
equaled and even raised the bar of embarrassment, tweeting on Twitter: "There was no justification for raising the interest rate. I asked Finance Minister Smotritz to draw up an outline with the Governor of the Bank of Israel to stop interest rate increases."
Did you understand that?
All that is needed to eradicate inflation is a blueprint.
We all feel that high interest rates are putting pressure on our wallets.
While large businesses that need funding or credit can absorb it and the middle class is forced to give up traveling abroad and sitting in restaurants, those who are most affected by it are the young couples, who took out a high mortgage and are unable to meet the payments and fear losing their home and money. But with all the empathy for the
plight The public, making delusional, populist statements disconnected from any reasonable economic logic, is not only ridiculous, but alarmingly irresponsible.
Since the legal reform burst into our lives, politicians have been warned of devastating consequences for the Israeli economy. Some of them have come true, such as the weakening of the shekel against the dollar and the faltering stock market Most of them remain speculations in the air, threats that may occur in the future. There is no dispute about one thing: damage to the Bank of Israel and the governor will bring economic ruin to the country and us. And without an economy, there will be nothing to reverse or even change.
Foreign Minister Eli Cohen.
He asked the Minister of Finance to draw up a "blueprint for stopping interest rate increases" (Photo: Reuven Castro)
Trouble for the rich, hunger for the poor
Let's start with the facts: inflation is not moderating, because the government is not living up to its promises to curb the cost of living.
The element that affected her the most last month was the 8.2% increase in the price of electricity, which the government promised to freeze.
The governor does not raise the interest rate in order to provoke the public.
Believe me, he is not a sadist who enjoys seeing us all suffer, especially not the young couples.
He raises the interest rate because it is the only tool that can stop inflation and through it require consumers to tighten their belts.
What's more:
the same people who are now complaining (quite rightly!) about not being able to make it through the month, are also the ones who are most vulnerable to inflation.
Why?
Because the smaller the income, the greater the relative portion that is spent on basic living needs: shopping at the supermarket, paying bills and more.
We have already mentioned the middle class who will "sacrifice" at most their annual vacation abroad (it sucks but they don't die from it). For his poorer friend, the dilemma is between the children's class and new coats for them, for the even poorer, the dilemma is between the bread For the milk - did you understand this, H.E. Cohen at Bitan?
Of course, there is also a comparison with the world: the president of the American Fed, Jerome Powell, leads a similar policy, as does the Central Bank of Europe, where - if anything - they regret that they fell asleep on the watch and were late with the increase.
So are Minister Cohen and MK Bitan reinventing the economy?
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The Minister of Finance, Bezalel Smotrich - issued a clarification in the middle of the night (Photo: Avi Rokah)
And these are still supposed to understand...
It is very worrying that those who try to please the public with such pointless populist statements are high-ranking officials such as the chairman of an important economic committee in the Knesset, and a former minister of economy, who aspired to be minister of finance but had to settle for a reduced foreign ministry. And in a current environment: these statements are a living example of the
damage of the transfer of power to politicians, who treat the professional level like workers on an assembly line, without harming the dignity of the dedicated workers, of course. .
They are officials, right?
Those who hinder our politicians from "governing"...
not only to make them miserable, they want to be "elected by the public" but also to replace them, to turn them into what is called in the language of corruption "positions of trust".
Until the Roman emperor Caligula who appointed Zozo to senator comes up in historical memory, in this situation it is hard not to remember how Caligula appointed his horse to senator.
After the ombudsman and the police commissioner, the time has come to hit "another official" (photo: photo processing, Flash 90, Yonatan Zindel)
Smotrich the national pacifier
"When the political space expands and the professional space shrinks, it leads to the breaking of trust in all government institutions," explains economist Dr. Yishai Ashlag, founder of the One BEAT company. "Since trust in people is the basis of a prosperous economy, if it is damaged, it will sink very quickly.
The governor doesn't have many degrees of freedom in setting the interest rate, because it mainly depends on what happens in the US. He can be wrong, but he's still the governor."
Bitan and Cohen threw a burning match into a field of thorns and - the one who ran in the middle of the night with a fire extinguisher, and tried to put out the flames with all his might, was the Minister of Finance, Bezalel Smotrich, who issued a long message in the middle of the night in Hebrew and English, in which he announced unequivocally, that he would defend the independence of a bank Israel no matter what.
It's not that Smotrich was struck by a sudden desire to change the embarrassing impression left by his sarcastic letter in foreign to the CEO of the "Costco" chain when he invited him to open a chain in Israel as well. He simply realized, very quickly and efficiently, it must be said, that he had to convey to the world and to the credit rating companies, that with Legal reform or without it, no one will threaten the Central Bank of Israel, otherwise we really have no right to economic existence. The
Foreign Minister at least, apparently realized how puzzling the statement he uttered was, and therefore hastened to give us the following message:
"Foreign Minister Eli Cohen who worked The international rating company supports the independence of the Bank of Israel and the attempt to attribute this, even though it is not stated otherwise, is distorted.
Minister Cohen definitely thinks that we should act with additional tools to curb inflation and not make exclusive use of the tool of interest, for example lowering taxes (VAT) that will reduce prices and for that it is right that the Minister of Finance and the governor formulate additional ways and not use only the draconian tool of raising interest rates."
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Amir Yaron
Bank of Israel Governor
David Bitan
foreign Minister
Eli Cohen
Bezalel Smotrich
