So, Mark Carney and his cronies were unanimous in cutting the base interest rate from half a percent to a quarter of one percent AND they say there's scope to cut it further!
Mark Carney said the Bank of England will do what is required for "monetary and financial stability".
Interesting; stability would have been keeping it the same. And with good reason, because the problem is low confidence, low consumer confidence and low business confidence brought about by Brexit. Does anyone really think another quarter of one percent off interest rates and printing even more money is going to change anything at all?
Is seeing a bank with nothing left in its armoury clutching at straws really going to boost confidence?
Admittedly going the other way and raising interest rates now might have caused a few of the indebted to panic, but if the aim is to steady the ship then doing nothing sends a message to people that things aren't so bad after all and that's about all that could have been done to inspire the missing confidence.
Eventually rates actually need to rise, to shore up the pound and make imported goods affordable, since as those prices go up, so too does inflation, it's not as simple as it seems, some balance is required.
House prices and buy to let are often brought into the argument, but its not just oldies like me who paid astronomical interest rates on their mortgages, truly astronomical, and who now cannot get a return on their money and see their savings devalue and dwindle - it's also those saving for a deposit on their first home who see the value of their savings going down even as they add to them. Balance is what we all need.
Unemployment is predicted to rise, growth to stagnate and everyone's holding their breath hoping to avoid the recession word. Balance Mark not another sign of panic in the face of the Brexit disaster.
Well done the broken Tories for creating a referendum to try and heal the division in their own ranks, well done the liars and well done those who voted with emotion not sense.
A friend of a friend of mine recently accused 'Remainers' on Facebook of wanting the country to go down the toilet. Presumably she thinks we want this to prove a point, but actually anyone who has a pension tied to the British economy, a job here in the UK, or kids wanting a future here absolutely doesn't want the country to go down the toilet. Not least because the option to emigrate may disappear too.
What is interesting is that this 'proud Brexiteer', her description not mine, actually acknowledges that the country could go down the toilet as a result of the chaos she voted for and inflicted on the 48 per centers. I wonder how many others are belatedly waking up to that possibility, or even have the sense to see it.
There is actually something big business could do to help this situation and themselves at the same time. Turn a problem into an opportunity. Funnily I wrote a chapter about it in a book I penned years ago. The book is called 'Of Land Sea And Sky' and the chapter is entitled 'Savers'.
If anyone out there is a board member of a company that sells high price items from cars to yachts, conservatories to new kitchens it might be worth reading the thing, actually in these circumstances it's a more powerful idea than ever.
Of Land, Sea And Sky
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