In December 1985, Thomas Sargent spent some time in Brazil, giving speeches and talking to policymakers. Back home in January 1986, he published in the WSJ an Open Letter to the Brazilian Finance Minister:
…When you have exhausted all of your opportunities to borrow, you will have to make one or more of these unpleasant adjustments: raise taxes, lower government expenditures, or default on some of you debt…
Inflation is very useful to you because it raises an “inflation tax” of substantial proportions…Reducing your inflation tax by borrowing more in your domestic market is counterproductive…So my first piece of advice is that you had better retain the inflation tax and make heavy use of it, until other adjustments have been made in your finances…
The economics behind Sargent´s Letter:
In order to be solvent, the government must be ready to back up the existing amount of debt with either future seignorage…
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