Interest rates

[babybel]

I would clear off everyones debts, based on a percentage scale.

 

up to £xxx ammount of debt = 100% Cleared

up to £xxx ammount of debt = 80% Cleared

up to £xxx ammount of debt = 60% Cleared

up to £xxx ammount of debt = 50% Cleared

up to £xxx ammount of debt = 40% Cleared ... etc

 

Maybe those 10k and below get 100% cleared, 20k or below get 80% cleared etc...

 

this would make everyones pockets fuller, and would encourage more spending (as people would have more money) which would mean more in the economy.

 

I know it's simplistic but I like this idea to balance everyone out someway in this dodgy economy

[L00b]

Well, after the hundreds of £bns into the financial sector and with the QE now starting in earnest, all that in a matter of mere months, they may as well have done exactly what Ghozer suggested in the first place, which would probably have been much more effective (after all, and I'm eating humble pie here after what I posted earlier about this suggestion).

 

Makes you want to line'em up against a wall and...

[Bladesman]

I'm so glad I was sensible with my money and saved what I could as well as having a fixed rate mortgage! It turns out I should have spend all my savings and gone for the riskier flexible rate mortgage.

 

Huge interest rate cuts seem to only reward people who spend all their money and take bigger risks. The type of thing that got is in this trouble in the first place.

 

Exactly.

 

I should of not bothered opening an ISA and bought a giant amusingly shaped turnip instead.

[taxman]

If interest rates go any lower the blooming banks will start charging me interest to have my money.

 

As for "quantitative easing" it all presupposes that commercial banks will start lending again rather than just sitting on the money. Surely a better way to increase the amount of money being spent in the economy is to give us all a lump sum to spend. We are more likely to spend it as there's no point saving it because the interest rate is so meagre

[Tomataheeed]

If interest rates go any lower the blooming banks will start charging me interest to have my money.

 

As for "quantitative easing" it all presupposes that commercial banks will start lending again rather than just sitting on the money. Surely a better way to increase the amount of money being spent in the economy is to give us all a lump sum to spend. We are more likely to spend it as there's no point saving it because the interest rate is so meagre

 

 

Has this ever actually been tried before? Did Japan do this ? If I was given a few quid for free I'd probably just pay off some debt.

[poppins]

I heard that the banks will soon be holding onto your money by only letting you draw out a certain amount each day, suppose to go into effect this April, I noticed that sort of thing started a few months back when they changed the amount people could with draw from their ATM machines. (per day)

[Dimitri 11]

Has this ever actually been tried before? Did Japan do this ? If I was given a few quid for free I'd probably just pay off some debt.

 

According to a guy called Jim Rogers QE has been tried before (not in UK) but never ever been successful. He said it won't work: http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/business_money/interview+jim+rogers/3009962 Note that only a small bit of the interview is about QE so if you're only watching it for that fast forward to at least 14 minutes (I think). The rest is about the recession/depression in general.

 

Apparently Japan did it but still had deflation rather than hyperinflation. Apparently something to do with the fact they export a lot of goods and their people had a lot of savings (kind of opposite to over here!). Obviously a lot more complex than that but that seemed to be the jist of what I read (i.e. what I could understand!)

[Cyclone]

75 billion, that's approx £1000 for every adult and child in the country!

 

It devalues every pound you have in your wallet or your bank account, think of it as diluting the value of the pound and you won't be far wrong. Watch the exchange rates tumble even further than their recent falls.

[grafikhaus74]

So what's next? They've destroyed people's savings/pensioner's retirements by decimating interest rates. It hasn't worked.

Now we have the mystically-named Quantative Easing which has not worked in the previously-tried instances.

I rather suspect the powers that be will dream up some other half-assed scheme which will worm its way into the public conciousness and all the time we are being screwed.

The BBC was positively creaming itself yesterday morning at the prospect of a further half-point reduction - it's become a self-fulfilling prophesy.

 

I posted a while ago about watching Question Time with the viewer's text comments on display and yesterday was the same. The utterly stark difference between the politicians and 'experts' on the panel and those texting in was amazing. Surely the texters were not some raving mob of anarchists (or as some on here would say, 'Daily Mail readers'), but people who had chosen to watch a late-night current affairs prog. so their views can be seen as fairly representative.

 

In contrast, the people on the panel - especially the politicians - are plainly people who 'talk the talk' and who's only talent is the low cunning of a cornered rat.

[L00b]

I heard that the banks will soon be holding onto your money by only letting you draw out a certain amount each day, suppose to go into effect this April

 

With the money presses at full tilt, this kind of makes sense (to someone as cynical as me )

 

Everybody in their starting blocks yet, ready for the 'Great Big Bank Run'?

 

Have you got a clean source, or can you elaborate a bit on where these 'noises' came from, to firm this up at all? (or is it just speculation?)