Does perishable e-money represent the future of fiscal stimulus?

“IF YOU WANTTV to see how the free market really works this is the place to come,” said Milton Friedman in “Free to Choose”, his 1980s series. He was sitting on a cross-harbour ferry in Hong Kong. The city, he said, was an “almost laboratory experiment in what happens when government...leaves people free to pursue their own objectives”.This week the same city began another experiment: not merely leaving people free to pursue their own objectives, but giving them free money to pursue their own purchases. On August 1st Hong Kongers received the first instalment of the government’s consumption voucher, an effort to revive the city’s hard-hit retail industry. The amounts are generous (HK$5,000 or $640) and the distribution is slick. The money is added to a person’s Octopus card (widely used in shops and on public transport) or paid into e-payment apps, such as Alipay. Shops are now vying for their customers’ unearned dollars. The Mira hotel, where Edward Snowden revealed America’s secrets to the world, is offering 75% off a romantic “staycay”. Unlike ordinary cash handouts, these e-vouchers must be spent within a few months. Otherwise they will “expire”.