Hong Kong’s Helicopter Money Struggles for Lift
Giving people a coronavirus handout and taking it away with a new tax would be a bad idea.
A major financial center with limited revenue options.
Photographer: Anthony Kwan/Getty
If you’re raining cash on people and want them to spend it, you have to convince them that the benevolence is being financed by printing money. Nobody wants to worry about being taxed more in the future.
These things are going to be problematic for Hong Kong Financial Secretary Paul Chan. He plans to give away HK$10,000 ($1,285) to every adult permanent resident to blunt the economic impact of the coronavirus, but since he can’t conjure money at will, he’s being asked if the city will consider a consumption tax to make such giveaways more than just a one-time palliative. That’s the last thing the receiver of gifts wants — being made to pay for them.