Thursday 8 January 2009

Bank of England's rate cut will fail to help, experts warn

Telegraph
"But experts said the move would do little to help borrowers as banks fail to pass on the lower borrowing costs on to customers while savers see their accounts head towards zero per cent. "
"The Bank is now likely to consider other, less conventional attempts to boost the economy, including printing money, known as quantitative easing. "

Interest rate cut leaves few options on the table
"Rates are now at their lowest level in the Bank’s 394-year history and there is precious little evidence that monetary policy is working properly. "Apart from driving the value of the pound down at an alarming rate, the rate cuts are not leading people to borrow money to buy homes or start spending. The only people really noticing are savers who are left with virtually nothing from their nest eggs. "....and the Chancellor is struggling to keep pace with events as they unfold." Therefore, every time the Bank acts and the base rate gets closer to zero, the more the pressure ratchets up on the Government. They now only have weeks to act or risk a more serious recession developing.The Vat cut is increasingly looking like a costly mistake which Mr Darling and Mr Brown can ill-afford to repeat."
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A year of reckoning (The Guardian)
"There is no progress without sustainability, and there was nothing sustainable about Brown's economic policies, which have devoured rather than built Britain's capital - human, social and financial."

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