[Verse 1] Nineteen forty-six, the ledger's drenched in red, Two hundred fifty percent of output hangs above the island's head, No guillotine of taxes, no Gladstone marching band, Just quiet pressure, building slow, beneath the promised land. The war is won but debt's a tenant who won't pack and leave, So Whitehall finds a softer trick, one the ledgers won't perceive. [Chorus] Repressão silenciosa, a dívida se esconde (quiet repression, the debt hides away) Juros presos, abaixo do normal, ninguém responde (rates held under, nobody answers) Capital controls lock the gate, savers feed the state, Segura, abaixa, paga devagar — three percent a year, the slow escape. [Verse 2] Forty-seven brings the Exchange Control Act, sterling's put in chains, Pounds can't wander overseas, the border holds the reins, Across the water, Regulation Q caps what banks can pay, Captive pension funds and widows buy the bonds and stay. Inflation creeps above the coupon, real return turns shy and thin, That's the liquidation engine, quietly grinding debt within. [Chorus] Repressão silenciosa, a dívida se esconde Juros presos, abaixo do normal, ninguém responde Capital controls lock the gate, savers feed the state, Segura, abaixa, paga devagar — three to four percent a year, washed away. [Verse 3] Anglo-American Loan, three billion seventy-five, Lent in forty-six to keep the battered pound alive, Convertibility in forty-seven — crisis in six weeks flat, Reserves drained out the door before the ink had time to set. They patched the hole, delayed the bill, kept kicking down the years, Last installment paid in two-thousand-six — six decades, borrowed tears. [Bridge] Century nineteen leaned on surplus, taxed and paid it straight, Century twentieth whispered: repress it, regulate. No axe, no austerity headline, just a ceiling and a wall, Dívida escondida em juro baixo — devaluing it all. Now quantitative easing hums that same old tune again, Central banks as captive buyers — history's refrain. [Verse 4] Japan writes the modern verse, decades of rates held near the floor, Trillions parked in government bonds, pension funds can't ask for more, Europe's banks still swallow sovereign paper at a loss, Basel rules call it riskless while the real yield pays the cost. Call it macroprudential, call it a prudent regulation's name, The medicine of nineteen-forty-six returns, dressed up, the same. [Chorus] Repressão silenciosa, a dívida se esconde Juros presos, abaixo do normal, ninguém responde Capital controls lock the gate, savers feed the state, Segura, abaixa, paga devagar — the slow escape. [Outro] Two-fifty down to nothing, nobody raised a blade, Just rates kept low and gates kept shut while debt quietly decayed, Repressão financeira — devagar, sem alarde, The ledger balanced not by cuts, but by a long, soft, borrowed tide.
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