The European Central Bank has announced a programme of bond-buying of €60 billion a month, to be carried out at least until end-Sept 2016. Monetary policy around the world remains in the midst of a remarkable experiment: money creation is expected sustainably to solve real economic problems. It is possible that […]
Read MorePost Tagged with: "Quantitative Easing"
Three videos to start the Autumn
On levels of debt: On the madness of QE and the current economic consensus: On the battle of economic ideas:
Read MoreThe awful unspoken truth about QE
Via Conservative Home’s blog The Deep End, an interesting question about QE: If the Government is just going to print money, why can’t we have some? Of course, if you started to give the cash directly to the people, then they might finally understand that our entire economic system runs on […]
Read MoreThe triumph of politics » The Cobden Centre
At The Cobden Centre, Detlev Schlichter explains that, The biggest threat to your property and to your individual liberty does not come from markets and not even from the bankers. It comes from politics. I feel sure he is right. We’ve had decades of excessive political promises paid for by high […]
Read MoreThe weather. QE. How can clever people be so wrong?
As The Telegraph reported, in March the Met Office “slightly favoured drier than average conditions for April-May-June”. Yet we’ve had more rain than since records began. How could clever people be so wrong? Famously, the climate is a complex system. The usual example of how small changes in initial conditions can lead […]
Read MoreMonetary activism caused the crisis and may cause a worse one later
Last night in the Budget debate, I set out how “monetary activism”, which is one of the pillars of the Government’s strategy, could go wrong: This is a Budget of fiscal conservatism and monetary activism. It is a Budget, above all, of economic expectations, setting out to people that we […]
Read MoreMore QE? Hold tight for a worse crisis later
From Mises’ Human Action: The wavelike movement affecting the economic system, the recurrence of periods of boom which are followed by periods of depression, is the unavoidable outcome of the attempts, repeated again and again, to lower the gross market rate of interest by means of credit expansion. There is no […]
Read MoreMore QE to be discussed today
If the Bank of England today decides on more Quantitative Easing, I’ll produce an article explaining why they are wrong, why QE is a grave source of injustice and how it will fail to revive the economy. In the meantime, here’s a flavour from James Tyler at The Cobden Centre: […]
Read MoreFirst in Line for New Money – Doug French – Mises Daily
Via First in Line for New Money – Doug French – Mises Daily: Increases in money aren’t sprinkled from the sky, floating indiscriminately into whoever’s hands are in the right place at the right time. Money-supply increases occur through the commercial banking system and Federal Reserve. Those who receive the money […]
Read MoreMust read, paywall or not: Fame & fortune: Why I bet the ranch on cattle
In today’s world it’s impossible to be a saver. You’re forced to be a speculator because cash is being undervalued by governments through quantitative easing (QE) [printing money]. I buy hard assets, such as commodities, although there are few bargains anymore. via Fame & fortune: Why I bet the ranch […]
Read More
