Posted by seumasach on March 20, 2013
20th March, 2013
Bank of England policymakers have warned that more quantitative easing could lead to “an unwarranted depreciation of sterling” if markets interpreted the move as evidence that the central bank was abandoning its commitment to low inflation.
Posted in UK economy | Tagged: no more bombing!-no more bailouts!, QE3, quantitative easing | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on February 5, 2012
Liam Halligan
28th January, 2012
First Romney learnt that, having “won” the opening Iowa caucus, he actually lost on a recount. In the South Carolina primary, he was trounced by Newt Gingrich after a lacklustre debate performance. Romney then bungled his personal tax return, insisting he wouldn’t make it public for months, then releasing it anyway.
Posted in Financial crisis | Tagged: dead banks, full disclosure, no more bailouts-put banks into receivership, quantitative easing | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on February 4, 2012
The British Pound extended the advance from the previous month to reach a fresh yearly high of 1.5882, but we are going to see the sterling come under pressure next week should the Bank of England take additional steps to stimulate the ailing economy. Although the BoE is widely expected to keep the benchmark interest rate at 0.50%, all of the 50 economist polled by Bloomberg News see the Monetary Policy Committee expanding its Asset Purchase Facility beyond the GBP 275B target, and the central bank may keep the door open to expand its balance sheet further in an effort to stem the risk of a double-dip recession.
This is a rather immodest proposal framed framed in the most modest terms: “Bankers of the realm, do you accept another tranch of newly minted cash in exchange for the worthless assets you are still holding on your balance sheets without daring to mark to market? We do!” reply the blushing bankers in unison, “till death us do part” Thus we will see in the coming weeks the consumation of the marriage between our elected representatives and the City if London. Of course, the BOE claims the money is for purchase of government securities rather than further bailout. They would say that and its hardly good news that we have to print money to sell guilts. Still, this will be at least in part another bailout of the banks, gratefully accepted. It is this money printing prowess that our pundits have been boasting about as the great trump card of the British economy which still has its own currency, unlike the hapless Greeks. Yes, but if we are to devalue our currency in perpetuity why would anyone accept or hold assets denominated in it. they would only do so if they had no choice- if all the other options had been knocked out. Hence the desperate campaign against the euro, but the euro will continue to be a viable alternative and the emerging econo ies are looking into new ways of bypassing the dollar and the pound. The “bearish” forecast is thus more than justified with all the horrors that that entails for an economy totally dependent on imports.
Fundamental Forecast for British Pound: Bearish
4th February, 2012
The British Pound extended the advance from the previous month to reach a fresh yearly high of 1.5882, but we are going to see the sterling come under pressure next week should the Bank of England take additional steps to stimulate the ailing economy. Although the BoE is widely expected to keep the benchmark interest rate at 0.50%, all of the 50 economist polled by Bloomberg News see the Monetary Policy Committee expanding its Asset Purchase Facility beyond the GBP 275B target, and the central bank may keep the door open to expand its balance sheet further in an effort to stem the risk of a double-dip recession.
Posted in UK economy | Tagged: no more wars!-no more bailouts!, QE3, quantitative easing | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on January 22, 2012
Here are the main themes of the UK media’s coverage of our economic collapse: the recession is a “technicality”; it’s all Europe’s fault; things will get better with more QE just like they didn’t last time.
It’s hard to know what to say to this. Britain is a consumer economy or it is nothing. The recession is plain for all to see: all three of my favourite coffee shops in the West End of Glasgow have closed since Christmas. The streets and roads are emptying. This is a downward spiral, a reverse multiplier.
Since our exports to Europe never amounted to much, even with the pound approaching parity with the euro, Europe can hardly be to blame. Of course, hedge funds may be losing bullions speculating against the euro but that is a different matter.
QE did nothing to help last time: it merely generated inflation and gave the financiers a number of ingenuous options such as carry trades to make a quick buck.
As I say we’re a consumer economy or we’re nothing. It looks like nothing. Mired in debt, stuck in homes which can’t sold, overwhelmed by rising prices of food and fuel, facing unemployment and frozen wages, facing cuts in benefits, overburdened by unfair taxation such as the notorious council tax, a virtual poll tax which hasn’t been introduced elsewhere, facing endless fines for trivial driving or parking offences, unable to afford the exorbitant cost of public transport, watching our business fail as disposable income dries up, wandering around half-empty supermarkets looking for bargains and finding everyone gathering round the reductions shelf, unable to get simple house repairs done and paying through the nose for the failed attempt, buried under a cruel and corrupt benefits system, fighting failing health as the government blasts us with dangerous and carcinogenic radiation. All this only to be told by the media and politicians that everything is fine apart from the Eurozone, to be lied to incessantly by an army of irremediably corrupted experts, to have our intelligence insulted and our pockets emptied. This is Britain before the abyss, blind and befuddled, threatening or hectoring our international partners, hubristic and delusional, smug and stupid, rejoicing in the woes of others whilst seemingly unaware of where we are going. We are going to hell.
22nd January, 2012
This week official growth numbers are expected to show that the economy shrunk by 0.1% in the final three months of last year.
Posted in UK economy | Tagged: QE2, QE3, quantitative easing | Leave a Comment »
Posted by smeddum on November 3, 2010
November 03, 2010
The People’s Bank of China, the central bank, warned in its report on Nov. 2 that enormous capital may flood into fast-growing emerging economies from developed economies, which are apparently poised to launch more stimulus actions to battle stagnation. As a result, emerging economies are facing mounting pressure of inflation and capital influx. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Financial crisis | Tagged: quantitative easing | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on October 24, 2010
European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said that the G-20 made “no particular conclusion” after some members expressed concern about proposals for further quantitative easing in the U.S.
I think the conclusion is that the US plan has been quietly but firmly rejected. What will their next step be? Nice to see a bit of straight speaking from the Germans – they’re becoming increasingly uppety.
23rd October, 2010
The Federal Reserve’s push toward easier monetary policy is the “wrong way” to stimulate growth and may amount to a manipulation of the dollar, German Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle said.
Posted in Battle for Europe, Financial crisis | Tagged: G20, quantitative easing | Leave a Comment »
Posted by smeddum on September 13, 2009
Cheap dollars are sowing the seeds of the next world crisis
After years of selling cheap goods to debt-fuelled Western consumers, China now has $2 trillion dollars of foreign exchange reserves. That’s 2,000 billion – a reserve haul no less 25 times bigger than that of the UK.
By Liam Halligan
Published: 12 Sep 2009
In a world of systemic instability, reserves mean power. Reserves mean you can defend your currency, stabilise your banking system and boost your economy without resorting to yet more borrowing – or, worse still, the printing press. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Financial crisis | Tagged: China, quantitative easing | Leave a Comment »
Posted by smeddum on September 4, 2009
UK will grow sicker until it swallows the bitter pill of economic reality
Millions of ordinary Britons are worried sick about debt and falling incomes. Unemployment and house repossessions are soaring – glib statistics which mask a welter of human misery. Countless UK firms are struggling with cash flow as they try to balance the books. And we’re all sick of the grim economic news.
Telegraph
By Liam Halligan
29 Aug 2009
No wonder the UK’s “imminent recovery” is getting a lot of coverage. Last week, I returned from holidays abroad to find our media banging the “recession is over” drum. In truth, though, the UK remains in economic dire straits.
I write this not to “talk down the economy” – although I’ll be accused of doing so. I’m countering the prevailing consensus because of the evidence. I’m also concerned that by insisting everything is rosy, a vast panoply of political and financial vested interests can claim their counterproductive “rescue measures” are working, while avoiding the tough regulatory changes we need to prevent another “sub-prime”. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Financial crisis | Tagged: phony recovery, quantitative easing | Leave a Comment »
Posted by smeddum on June 12, 2009
Inside investment: Quantitative easing – Kill or cure?
Monday, June 08, 2009
Andrew Capon
Euromoney
Quantitative easing is being hailed as a policy panacea. The problem is that it sounds a lot like a prescription that causes the very problems it is designed to treat.
When the world was a happier place, before economists annexed the lexicon of forensic pathologists, there was much talk about global imbalances. In the final quarter of 2005 the US current account deficit peaked at 6.4% of GDP. Some thought this was a bad thing, although few pinned down exactly why. Others thought it was a “stable disequilibrium”. Export-driven economies, principally in Asia, could in effect provide vendor financing to the US via their high savings rates, foreign exchange reserves and sovereign wealth funds.
We now know that this stable disequilibrium did not beget stability. Instead, it inflated bubbles everywhere. Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke presciently called the rise in current account surpluses in Asia and oil-exporting economies a “global savings glut”. By contrast the US household savings rate as a share of disposable income gradually declined from 10% in the early 1980s and tipped into negative territory in 2003. The reason US savings went negative was that people were using their houses as ATMs. As house prices soared so did equity withdrawal.
Ultimately, like a Ponzi scheme, debt-fuelled demand will collapse under its own weight. Many point to Bernanke’s predecessor at the Fed, Alan Greenspan, as bubble-blower-in-chief. It is now received wisdom that after the TMT bust Greenspan kept interest rates too low for too long. However, Greenspan could only keep rates so low with the complicity of foreign investors, many of them other central banks and official institutions, which were needed to plug the gap in US savings and fund the current account deficit. By 2007 the US absorbed 65% of global capital imports. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Financial crisis | Tagged: quantitative easing | Leave a Comment »
Posted by smeddum on May 7, 2009
China fears bond crisis as it slams quantitative easing
China has given its clearest warning to date that emergency monetary stimulus by Western governments risks setting off worldwide inflation and undermining global bond markets.
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
07 May 2009
Telegraph
“A policy mistake made by some major central bank may bring inflation risks to the whole world,” said the People’s Central Bank in its quarterly report.
“As more and more economies are adopting unconventional monetary policies, such as quantitative easing (QE), major currencies’ devaluation risks may rise,” it said. The bank fears a “big consolidation” in the bond markets, clearly anxious that interest yields will surge as western states try to exit their QE experiment.
Simon Derrick, currency chief at the Bank of New York Mellon, said the report is the latest sign that China is losing patience with the US and aims to diversify part its $1.95 trillion (£1.3 trillion) foreign reserves away from US Treasuries and other dollar securities. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Financial crisis | Tagged: bond bubble, bursting bond bubble, China, quantitative easing | Leave a Comment »
Posted by smeddum on March 14, 2009
Alistair Darling and senior figures in the US Treasury have been encouraging the Fund to issue hundreds of billions of dollars worth of so-called Special Drawing Rights in the coming months as part of its campaign to prevent the recession from turning into a global depression. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Financial crisis | Tagged: quantitative easing | Leave a Comment »
