India, Oct. 23 -- There are huge mismatches in what think tank McKinsey dubs as the Global Balance Sheet. This is the case throughout this century, from 2000 onwards, but the divergences have escalated in the recent past. Although a semblance of sanity was introduced by the pandemic, the subsequent mania has shattered the sanctity of the balance sheet, which sums up the world's assets, liabilities, and wealth. Indeed, households across the globe, which own nine-tenths of the wealth, gained $400 trillion in the past 25 years. But, according to McKinsey's calculations, more than a third were on paper. These were peripheral gains decoupled from the real economy.

The fact remains that the other aspects of the balance sheet were always delink...