Barter Apps Spread in Europe as Inflation Pushes Households Away From Cash

A new class of applications lets people exchange knowledge, skills and time without money, and their use is expanding as inflation and rising living costs push Europeans toward collaborative arrangements, Euronews reported. The return of barter, updated for the smartphone, is a small but telling response to the loss of purchasing power that years of high prices have produced.

The strain is also reviving debate over how governments should respond. Rent control, long out of favor among economists, is back in political discussion. Supporters present it as relief for tenants, while critics argue it protects existing renters but discourages the investment that would add housing supply, the Financial Times reported. Both developments are responses to the same underlying condition, which is money that buys less than it did.

From a sound-money perspective, barter and price caps address the effects rather than the cause. When the value of currency is reduced by sustained monetary expansion, people look for ways around it, whether by trading time directly or by demanding controls on prices. These responses ease the immediate hardship without addressing its cause, and price controls in particular tend to reduce the supply of the goods they target.