Today’s Independent is just one of the newspapers to report that the Old Lady of Threadneedle Street wants to print more money as part of a programme of what is technically called ‘quantative easing’. From Wikipedia’s definition – "Quantitative easing is a term for when a central bank creates money out of thin air to inject into the banking system" – you can tell its normally undesirable.
On 2nd February George Osborne told The Telegraph that he wouldn’t rule QE out but that it would be "an admission that everything else hasn’t worked." He continued: "That’s why I describe it as the last resort of desperate governments."
John Redwood has, of course, blogged that it has been underway for some time:
"I would urge all those about to broadcast or write on this subject to take the precaution of first reading the latest Bank of England Weekly statements. These show that quantitative easing is well underway. The Bank’s balance sheet has ballooned from well under £100 billion last September, to nearly £240 billion by the year end. Just picking up tittle tattle from “sources” can be very misleading."
You would hope that Parliament would get a full chance to debate the implications of QE but I suspect it won’t.
Tim Montgomerie