Friday, 10 February 2012

Quantitative easing: Pensioners are paying the price for Sir Mervyn’s 'funny money’

Telegraph
"The uncomfortable truth is that not even the experts know for sure. Britain has become a massive laboratory for the biggest experiment in money-printing the modern world has ever seen. There are only a handful of certainties: that debtors have it a little easier, that the banks are lending a little more freely. But pensioners are retiring with far lower incomes, and millions will be poorer now and for ever as a result.

It could well be that Sir Mervyn is right in his unspoken calculation that extra pensioner poverty is a price worth paying. Mr Osborne may well be right that the Government’s squeeze on incomes is a price worth paying to avoid higher unemployment. But in a democracy, it is odd that such an orchestrated transfer of wealth from savers to borrowers can be carried out without anyone admitting what’s going on. Another banking collapse would be calamitous for Britain, and it is the Chancellor’s duty to do what he thinks is best for the economy. But it is also his duty to be honest about who is paying the price."

No comments: