Vague_Boy Posted October 6, 2011 Share Posted October 6, 2011 Shadow chancellor Ed Balls on the news just now regarding the Bank of England's MPC committee's decision to hold interest rates at 0.5% and to go with £75 billion more quantitative easing. Apparently he said on the BBC that QE is bad and interest rates are too low. Bearing in mind that interest rates have been at 0.5% for 31 months and that we had a bigger dollop of QE in 2009 (£200 million), Ed must think that the average voter is either [a] Very stupid Has the memory of a stunned goldfish He's probably right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alchresearch Posted October 6, 2011 Share Posted October 6, 2011 Didn't Brown do Quantitative Easing back in 2009? How come Ed Balls didn't say anything about it being bad then? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JFKvsNixon Posted October 6, 2011 Share Posted October 6, 2011 Didn't Brown do Quantitative Easing back in 2009? How come Ed Balls didn't say anything about it being bad then? Balls was Brown's chief lieutenant, so it's plausible that the quantitative easing in 2009 was his idea! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mj.scuba Posted October 6, 2011 Share Posted October 6, 2011 Strange that Balls would suggest interest rates are too low. If interest rates went up, no doubt he would be attacking the government for us having to pay higher mortgage rates. Isn't it always a favourite of theirs to point to the higher interest rates in the 90s? If interest rates go up, anybody that has any debt not on a fixed interest rate ends up paying more to their lender so they have less to spend in the 'real economy' and all it benefits is the banks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrSmith Posted October 6, 2011 Share Posted October 6, 2011 Strange that Balls would suggest interest rates are too low. If interest rates went up, no doubt he would be attacking the government for us having to pay higher mortgage rates. Isn't it always a favourite of theirs to point to the higher interest rates in the 90s? If interest rates go up, anybody that has any debt not on a fixed interest rate ends up paying more to their lender so they have less to spend in the 'real economy' and all it benefits is the banks. For once I agree with Balls, interest rates are too low. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alien52 Posted October 6, 2011 Share Posted October 6, 2011 For once I agree with Balls, interest rates are too low. Interested to know why.How do higher interest rates stimulate economic growth? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrSmith Posted October 6, 2011 Share Posted October 6, 2011 Interested to know why.How do higher interest rates stimulate economic growth? They probably wouldn't but they would stimulate my bank account so more money to spend, I know all the hard done by people that borrowed beyond their means would have less money to spend, but its every man for themselves. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JFKvsNixon Posted October 6, 2011 Share Posted October 6, 2011 They probably wouldn't but they would stimulate my bank account so more money to spend, I know all the hard done by people that borrowed beyond their means would have less money to spend, but its every man for themselves. I'm sure that not everyone who borrowed, borrowed beyond their means. Not many people save up to buy a house do they? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrSmith Posted October 6, 2011 Share Posted October 6, 2011 I'm sure that not everyone who borrowed, borrowed beyond their means. Not many people save up to buy a house do they? An interest rise will just take most peoples mortgages back to the level they were before interests were dropped, so it should hurt them too much unless they borrowed more than they could afford. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JFKvsNixon Posted October 6, 2011 Share Posted October 6, 2011 An interest rise will just take most peoples mortgages back to the level they were before interests were dropped, so it should hurt them too much unless they borrowed more than they could afford. No, but it'll take money out of the economy as more of people's income will go on paying the interest when they could be spending that money on goods and services. This will have the knock on effect of costing people their jobs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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