Interest rates aren’t as influential as you think
Criticising the Bank of England has become fashionable in City circles. From persisting too long with quantitative easing, to completely missing the upsurge in inflation to the condescending group think displayed on the validity of its discredited New Keynesian models, the Bank under Andrew Bailey has done plenty to make itself fair game. But when […]
We need to stop comforting ourselves with the myth of the all-powerful central bank
Inflation continues to be a major problem for policy makers. The annual rate of price increases hit 7 per cent last month and could be in double figures later this year. This projection is far from being a fantasy. On some measures, annual inflation in America is already over 10 per cent. Rather bizarrely, the […]
Burnley and Asda are unlikely warnings of debt-driven troubles
It has been a week of mixed messages. Not just on the release from lockdown, but on the economy. The Bank of England indicated that banks have been given six months to prepare for negative interest rates. The Monetary Policy Committee was quick to clarify that this did not mean that they would necessarily cut […]
Time for the Treasury to get with the programme — Britain can afford to spend
In the days of the old Soviet Union, so-called Kremlinologists would pore over every utterance of the Politburo, every sentence in Pravda, to try to work out what was really going on. Sajid Javid’s defenestration from the Treasury has led to an upsurge in similar types of intellectual effort here. What was it really all […]
