This is Mr Unexpected.
Mr Unexpected works for the government in a land called Unexpected Land.
Mr Unexpected is always surprised.
This is because Mr Unexpected never expects many things which are perfectly obvious to normal people. 
For instance, Mr. Unexpected expected that printing trillions of pounds during the pandemic would prevent people from becoming poorer.
Mr. Unexpected didn’t expect that printing trillions of pounds during the pandemic would reduce the value of all the pounds that already existed — and so make everyone much, much poorer.
This surprised Mr Unexpected, but Mr Unexpected is surprised by many things that are extremely unsurprising.
For instance, Mr. Unexpected expected that borrowing lots of money to pay people not to work would make Unexpected Land a nicer, kinder place.
Mr. Unexpected didn’t expect that borrowing lots of money to pay people not to work would cause the country to be massively in debt — while also reducing the number of people able to repay that debt.
Mr. Unexpected also didn’t expect that this would require him to get the country into even deeper debt to repay the existing debt he couldn’t pay back in the first place.
Mr. Unexpected expected that if the country was a nicer, kinder place, no one would really worry about the debt at all.
Mr. Unexpected also did not expect that the few remaining people he hadn’t paid not to work would become very, very angry when he asked them to give him the money they earned from doing all the work he had paid the other people not to do.
Mr. Unexpected expected that those people would instead be very happy that he had made the country a nicer, kinder place.
Silly Mr Unexpected!
Mr Unexpected thought he could cheer the people up by printing money so everyone could afford a house.
Mr Unexpected didn’t expect that this simply made houses much more expensive so the only people who could now afford a house were the people who already had one.
One sunny day, Mr. Unexpected unexpectedly felt like going for a walk to think about why so many unexpected things kept happening.
He walked and walked and walked and walked and walked and walked and walked.
Unexpectedly, he found himself in a new land far away from where he had started — which surprised Mr. Unexpected, as he didn’t know that walking for days could have that effect.
But Mr. Unexpected did expect a magical wizard to suddenly appear in front of him. You see, the thing about Mr. Unexpected is that he often expects things which are completely unlikely to happen.
For instance, one time he expected that saying the words “the economy will grow” would magically make it happen.
Of course, it didn’t. But that doesn’t stop Mr. Unexpected from expecting the impossible.
However, in this instance, the magical thing that Mr. Unexpected expected did happen — and a wizard appeared.
“Ah, Mr. Unexpected, I’ve been expecting you,” said the wizard.
“Where am I?” asked Mr. Unexpected.
“You have reached Expected Land,” replied the wizard.
“In this land, people don’t expect the government to create money out of thin air.
In this land, people expect that money has a fixed, expected supply.
In this land, people don’t expect the government to give them money. In fact, they expect to be responsible for their own money.
In this land, people don’t expect the government to take more money from them every year. In fact, they expect to keep more of their own money — because they worked hard for it.”
“Pffft” scoffed Mr Unexpected “I expect this land is a dreadful place to live. I expect everyone is poor and no one works because they can simply hoard their money instead of investing it. I expect there is also lots of crime as the government can’t simply print money to give to poor and old people, I expect that…”
“Not at all” interrupted the Wizard.
Mr. Unexpected hadn’t expected the wizard to interrupt him. He usually expected people to listen to his pronouncements as if they were profound truths rather than baseless waffle.
“Come, I will show you what a land built on hard money and personal responsibility is actually like.”
Unexpectedly, Mr. Unexpected found Expected Land to be a place where everything worked and everyone was happy. Families and communities were strong because they needed to look after each other — and could preserve enough wealth to do so comfortably.
Mr. Unexpected didn’t expect there to be very little crime in Expected Land. He didn’t expect that people found it much more beneficial to simply provide value to society when they were rewarded in a hard asset that increased in value over time.
Mr. Unexpected didn’t expect business and technology to be more impressive in Expected Land. He didn’t expect that when people’s money held its value, they invested it carefully based solely on the merits of an investment — rather than in a blind panic to prevent their wealth from being eroded by unexpected money printing.
“How is this possible?” asked Mr. Unexpected.
“It is not only possible,” replied the wizard, “it is to be expected!”
“Please, please, can you make my country an Expected Land as well?!” begged Mr. Unexpected.
“Certainly. If you like, I can wave my wand and put your land on a sound money standard, but…” then the wizard unexpectedly paused for a moment and slyly grinned to himself…
“I will also give you a Big Red Button that allows you to print money again — just in case you want to.”
“I don’t expect that I would ever want to press that!” Mr. Unexpected chuckled nervously.
As expected, everything gradually got better in Unexpected Land.
People were happier and worked harder as they were able to consistantly build their wealth.
Businesses and technology grew as this new wealth wasn’t wasted on unproductive uses.
Families stayed together and had more children as everyone could afford a nice home.
And everyone could afford a nice home because homes were simply places where you kept your children’s piggy bank and not the piggy bank itself.
However, as to be expected every now and then, an unexpected disaster happened.
A very bad storm blew through Unexpected Land, damaging buildings and destroying many people’s homes.
Everybody begged Mr. Unexpected to press his Big Red Button and print money to help fix the damage and cover people’s losses.
Mr. Unexpected paused for a moment…
And then — well, I expect you can guess what happened next...
For instance, Mr. Unexpected expected that printing trillions of pounds during the pandemic would prevent people from becoming poorer.
Mr. Unexpected didn’t expect that printing trillions of pounds during the pandemic would reduce the value of all the pounds that already existed — and so make everyone much, much poorer.
This surprised Mr Unexpected, but Mr Unexpected is surprised by many things that are extremely unsurprising.
For instance, Mr. Unexpected expected that borrowing lots of money to pay people not to work would make Unexpected Land a nicer, kinder place.
Mr. Unexpected didn’t expect that borrowing lots of money to pay people not to work would cause the country to be massively in debt — while also reducing the number of people able to repay that debt.
Mr. Unexpected also didn’t expect that this would require him to get the country into even deeper debt to repay the existing debt he couldn’t pay back in the first place.
Mr. Unexpected expected that if the country was a nicer, kinder place, no one would really worry about the debt at all.
Mr. Unexpected also did not expect that the few remaining people he hadn’t paid not to work would become very, very angry when he asked them to give him the money they earned from doing all the work he had paid the other people not to do.
Mr. Unexpected expected that those people would instead be very happy that he had made the country a nicer, kinder place.
Silly Mr Unexpected!
Mr Unexpected thought he could cheer the people up by printing money so everyone could afford a house.
Mr Unexpected didn’t expect that this simply made houses much more expensive so the only people who could now afford a house were the people who already had one.
One sunny day, Mr. Unexpected unexpectedly felt like going for a walk to think about why so many unexpected things kept happening.
He walked and walked and walked and walked and walked and walked and walked.
Unexpectedly, he found himself in a new land far away from where he had started — which surprised Mr. Unexpected, as he didn’t know that walking for days could have that effect.
But Mr. Unexpected did expect a magical wizard to suddenly appear in front of him. You see, the thing about Mr. Unexpected is that he often expects things which are completely unlikely to happen.
For instance, one time he expected that saying the words “the economy will grow” would magically make it happen.
Of course, it didn’t. But that doesn’t stop Mr. Unexpected from expecting the impossible.
However, in this instance, the magical thing that Mr. Unexpected expected did happen — and a wizard appeared.
“Ah, Mr. Unexpected, I’ve been expecting you,” said the wizard.
“Where am I?” asked Mr. Unexpected.
“You have reached Expected Land,” replied the wizard.
“In this land, people don’t expect the government to create money out of thin air.
In this land, people expect that money has a fixed, expected supply.
In this land, people don’t expect the government to give them money. In fact, they expect to be responsible for their own money.
In this land, people don’t expect the government to take more money from them every year. In fact, they expect to keep more of their own money — because they worked hard for it.”
“Pffft” scoffed Mr Unexpected “I expect this land is a dreadful place to live. I expect everyone is poor and no one works because they can simply hoard their money instead of investing it. I expect there is also lots of crime as the government can’t simply print money to give to poor and old people, I expect that…”
“Not at all” interrupted the Wizard.
Mr. Unexpected hadn’t expected the wizard to interrupt him. He usually expected people to listen to his pronouncements as if they were profound truths rather than baseless waffle.
“Come, I will show you what a land built on hard money and personal responsibility is actually like.”
Unexpectedly, Mr. Unexpected found Expected Land to be a place where everything worked and everyone was happy. Families and communities were strong because they needed to look after each other — and could preserve enough wealth to do so comfortably.
Mr. Unexpected didn’t expect there to be very little crime in Expected Land. He didn’t expect that people found it much more beneficial to simply provide value to society when they were rewarded in a hard asset that increased in value over time.
Mr. Unexpected didn’t expect business and technology to be more impressive in Expected Land. He didn’t expect that when people’s money held its value, they invested it carefully based solely on the merits of an investment — rather than in a blind panic to prevent their wealth from being eroded by unexpected money printing.
“How is this possible?” asked Mr. Unexpected.
“It is not only possible,” replied the wizard, “it is to be expected!”
“Please, please, can you make my country an Expected Land as well?!” begged Mr. Unexpected.
“Certainly. If you like, I can wave my wand and put your land on a sound money standard, but…” then the wizard unexpectedly paused for a moment and slyly grinned to himself…
“I will also give you a Big Red Button that allows you to print money again — just in case you want to.”
“I don’t expect that I would ever want to press that!” Mr. Unexpected chuckled nervously.
As expected, everything gradually got better in Unexpected Land.
People were happier and worked harder as they were able to consistantly build their wealth.
Businesses and technology grew as this new wealth wasn’t wasted on unproductive uses.
Families stayed together and had more children as everyone could afford a nice home.
And everyone could afford a nice home because homes were simply places where you kept your children’s piggy bank and not the piggy bank itself.
However, as to be expected every now and then, an unexpected disaster happened.
A very bad storm blew through Unexpected Land, damaging buildings and destroying many people’s homes.
Everybody begged Mr. Unexpected to press his Big Red Button and print money to help fix the damage and cover people’s losses.
Mr. Unexpected paused for a moment…
And then — well, I expect you can guess what happened next...
