Tuesday 2 June 2009

The bank of England's medicine is not working

Telegraph
"QE - the process in which the Bank of England effectively prints money and pumps it directly into the economy - was always going to be a tough one to pull off. The Japanese tried it in the 1990s and any evidence of success is hardly conclusive. And the earliest signs from the UK's own experience are hardly any more encouraging.Today the Bank of England released its mammoth monthly monetary and financial stats book and a dig beneath the numbers uncovers some rather alarming facts about the QE programme and its efficacy. The first is that the so-called leakage of the cash overseas (we first reported on this last month) is gathering pace. .....The one crumb of comfort is for those terrified about the impending threat of Zimbabwe-style hyperinflation: with quantitative easing still not working prices are hardly likely to get out of control. The Japan-style scenario of sticky deflation still looks like the larger long-term threat. At least for the time being."

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