Governments forbid counterfeiting, as they forbid force, yet they practice both. Legal counterfeit blends with the genuine money supply and is indistinguishable from it. It is, therefore, more insidious and, through sheer volume, vastly more destructive of the power of the monetary unit than is illegal counterfeit. It inevitably manifests itself in higher prices of goods and services.
The public is bewildered by the higher prices, and it requires but slight propaganda by the author of the inflation, the Government, to deflect criticism onto private business which, in the end, is always obliged to bring the bad news of rising prices to the people. The public does not realize that it is, in effect, indirectly paying taxes over the merchant's counter instead of paying them directly to the tax collector.
The Government finds this a ready way to increase taxation without being detected.
p36
Flight from Inflation
The Monetary Alternative
by E.C. Riegel
An unelected bunch of technocrats, with their inflationist monetary policy, are levying a tax on us all. We are being systematically robbed by a "Central Committee", communist dictatorship style.
Talk is cheap, of course, and I wouldn't flatter myself that the criticisms I post on this blog causes the slightest bit of consternation among the ruling elites. Or for that matter, what is posted on much more widely read blogs than mine.
However, better late than never, parts of the fourth estate are growing ever more wary of peddling the Bank Of England's excuses about its woeful overshoot of the 2% CPI target and articles questioning The Bank's commitment to the target are becoming more frequent. Now even the Prime Minister has expressed his concerns. ("PM Actually Dares To Mention The Bank Of England Are A Pile Of Shit Shock!")
The game is up. Hey, guess what, it turns out that a massive government deficit that is monetised by the central bank is inflationary! Economics 101 anyone?
What really pisses me off is these Oxbridge pricks on six figure salaries were certainly quick enough to take the credit for hitting the inflation target during the easy years prior to the credit crunch, oh yes.
But when they continuously get it badly wrong when the going gets tough, then it's due to external factors outside their control! So it's not their fault. Wankers.
Maybe these cunts should read up a bit more on the Wiemar Republic and a bit less on the Great Depression, eh?
Expect some more "surprisingly high" inflation figures this year and I believe the CPI will hit 5% and more. Given that I (unlike the members of the Bank Of England Monetary Policy Committee) have been on a pay freeze for a number of years, I'd love to be proven wrong. But don't hold your breath folks.
Monday, 17 January 2011
Saturday, 4 December 2010
Bank Of England Chief Economist Spencer Dale just keeps on lying
So, inflation has been above target, is above target and will continue to be above target.
Conclusion? Well, if you're the Bank of England's Chief Economist, Spencer Dale, clearly the The Bank has not "gone soft" on inflation, in a recent speech at the Kent Business school:
"My single most important message is that the Monetary Policy Committee remains as hard-nosed as ever in its determination to hit the inflation target."
How stupid do you think we are, you parasitic, thieving, lying sack of shit.
The speech is basically a repeat of his presentation to the Cardiff Business School from this September, and I'm sure the same speech will need to be used, word for word, for many years to come. "Many years", in the Orwellian world of the ruling elites, being a period of time that can be defined as "temporary", apparently.
With inflation above target for so long, they keep trotting out the same old excuses. Let's have a look, shall we?
Excuse: The fall in the pound has led to higher import prices and this has caused upward pressure on inflation.
Problem: This is a big, if not the biggest excuse they keep wheeling out:. But...the pound has fallen because of the base rate dropping to 0.5% and being left there. Oh, who sets interest rates? Ooops, The Bank Of England of Course!
Conclusion: The Bank is responsible for the exchange rate depreciation and therefore responsible for the impact on prices. So to try and explain this as an unanticipated external shock is utter bollocks.
Excuse: Spare capacity means inflationary pressure is low. If anything, falling prices remain a dangerous possibility.
Problem: "spare capacity" is a Keynesian myth. It can't even be measured.Recessions hit "higher order", capital intensive industries hardest. The "lower order" consumer goods sector can quite easily fail to feel the same or indeed any pressure to lower prices. Of course, the Keynesian blunder is to lump millions of different economic agents into one amorphous "aggregate" and pretend it can be controlled all at once (always by a superior technocratic governing elite who know better than us ignorant proles of course).
Conclusion: Spare capacity cannot be accurately measured, controlled, or considered as a reliable bulwark against inflation. And even if you don't agree, the inflation figures speak for themselves: we have had CPI inflation consistently higher than during periods of the boom, in the depths of an economic slump.
And then there's the 200 billion of newly created money ("Quantitative Easing"), the inflationary effects of which, funnily enough, The Bank of England doesn't want to be part of the discussion.
Let's cut to the chase shall we? In close coordination with the British Government, The Bank is deliberately attempting to inflate the UK out of its problems. The missing of the inflation target is no accident. So why the speeches trying to convince us that The Bank is serious about keeping inflation on target when the evidence is so overwhelming to the contrary? Well, that's because they are terrified of a "wage-price spiral" whereby the working populace realises the scam that is in place (they are in fact always getting poorer because prices are being pushed ever higher) and so push for higher wages. Since wages are a cost too (from an employers perspective), this feeds into the price of goods which go higher...and so on. The Bank would prefer to steal from us through high inflation to bail out the bankrupt fractional reserve banking system and the bankrupt government, yet they also want people to not push for higher wages when they see that everything is ever more expensive. In other words, they want to have their cake and eat it. Hence the ongoing propaganda campaign: "Oh, er, no this above target inflation is TEMPORARY so no need to push for a pay rise or anything, OK? Please?". Trouble is, you might get away with that for a few months. But 4 years?
I repeat: how stupid do they think we are???
I'll leave you with the very end of Dale's September speech, because it's the one part of it that is actually true (albeit unintentionally):
"....the objectives of policy will be clear and unchanging: inflation, inflation, inflation. "
Quite.
Conclusion? Well, if you're the Bank of England's Chief Economist, Spencer Dale, clearly the The Bank has not "gone soft" on inflation, in a recent speech at the Kent Business school:
"My single most important message is that the Monetary Policy Committee remains as hard-nosed as ever in its determination to hit the inflation target."
How stupid do you think we are, you parasitic, thieving, lying sack of shit.
The speech is basically a repeat of his presentation to the Cardiff Business School from this September, and I'm sure the same speech will need to be used, word for word, for many years to come. "Many years", in the Orwellian world of the ruling elites, being a period of time that can be defined as "temporary", apparently.
With inflation above target for so long, they keep trotting out the same old excuses. Let's have a look, shall we?
Excuse: The fall in the pound has led to higher import prices and this has caused upward pressure on inflation.
Problem: This is a big, if not the biggest excuse they keep wheeling out:. But...the pound has fallen because of the base rate dropping to 0.5% and being left there. Oh, who sets interest rates? Ooops, The Bank Of England of Course!
Conclusion: The Bank is responsible for the exchange rate depreciation and therefore responsible for the impact on prices. So to try and explain this as an unanticipated external shock is utter bollocks.
Excuse: Spare capacity means inflationary pressure is low. If anything, falling prices remain a dangerous possibility.
Problem: "spare capacity" is a Keynesian myth. It can't even be measured.
Conclusion: Spare capacity cannot be accurately measured, controlled, or considered as a reliable bulwark against inflation. And even if you don't agree, the inflation figures speak for themselves: we have had CPI inflation consistently higher than during periods of the boom, in the depths of an economic slump.
And then there's the 200 billion of newly created money ("Quantitative Easing"), the inflationary effects of which, funnily enough, The Bank of England doesn't want to be part of the discussion.
Let's cut to the chase shall we? In close coordination with the British Government, The Bank is deliberately attempting to inflate the UK out of its problems. The missing of the inflation target is no accident. So why the speeches trying to convince us that The Bank is serious about keeping inflation on target when the evidence is so overwhelming to the contrary? Well, that's because they are terrified of a "wage-price spiral" whereby the working populace realises the scam that is in place (they are in fact always getting poorer because prices are being pushed ever higher) and so push for higher wages. Since wages are a cost too (from an employers perspective), this feeds into the price of goods which go higher...and so on. The Bank would prefer to steal from us through high inflation to bail out the bankrupt fractional reserve banking system and the bankrupt government, yet they also want people to not push for higher wages when they see that everything is ever more expensive. In other words, they want to have their cake and eat it. Hence the ongoing propaganda campaign: "Oh, er, no this above target inflation is TEMPORARY so no need to push for a pay rise or anything, OK? Please?". Trouble is, you might get away with that for a few months. But 4 years?
I repeat: how stupid do they think we are???
I'll leave you with the very end of Dale's September speech, because it's the one part of it that is actually true (albeit unintentionally):
"....the objectives of policy will be clear and unchanging: inflation, inflation, inflation. "
Quite.
Wednesday, 15 September 2010
False Economy: why central bank control of monetary policy caused the credit crunch and won’t help get us out of it
It is human nature to want things sooner rather than later – and that instinct, to be a bit morbid for a second, is probably based on the inevitability of death. “You might get run over by a bus tomorrow” as a justification for living for the moment has a genuine statistical truth to it. For most people, there are certain big ticket purchases (such as a house, for example) that would literally require more than a lifetime to save up to buy outright.
There is an answer, of course.
Borrowing.
Think of the interest rate as the extra premium, or price, you pay for having a sum of money right now. If you don’t have enough money, you can borrow it. The interest rate is the price you pay for not waiting – not saving. An entity that has funds already (another person, a bank, etc) can lend you the money and the interest is paid to them. Thus people without money but are prepared to pay extra to have it now, are brought together with people who already have money and would like a fee to loan it out.
Now, what happens when the government comes along and, instead of letting the market find an interest rate based on how many borrowers and savers there are, how much of a default risk borrowers are, etc, it says, “THE RATE OF INTEREST RATE MUST BE 0.5%”?
The same thing that always has, and always will happen when the government lowers the price of something below the market rate.
Rationing.
Savers are discouraged from saving. But lenders are still not going to lend to a default risk, even at zero interest rates. Low savings rate + reduced revenue from loans = lenders starved of funds.
The banks have had billions of our money thrown at them and they have effectively said, “what free money, don’t know what yer talking about mate” and walked away hands in their pockets whistling whilst the economy dies. If you inherited a fortune, would you want to squander it on lame investments just because the money was given to you? Of course not. That’s why low interest rates and even outright money printing won’t solve the problem. We need a real recovery based on real saving. Not a false economy based on worthless paper conjured out of thin air.
Government, of course, doesn’t want to face these hard truths. That would mean we, the hapless working stiffs who generate the real wealth in the economy would see clearly right now how much poorer we really are. The here and now is what Government cares about, because they need to get re-elected. If that means laying waste to our future, so be it. They don’t care. They’re not up for re-election in a decade. They’re up for re-election in a few years. So fuck the next generation, right?, And so the deficit financing and inflationary monetary policy continues – when Government faces an ugly truth about how little the economy can fund its parasitic activities it will always pick the easy option of robbing future generations through borrowing and the current generation through inflation, the ultimate stealth tax imposed by our contemptuous, unelected, scum sucking Central Bank.
But hey, that’s what you get when the same fucking morons who caused this mess are in charge of implementing the fix. Did the Bank of England monetary policy committee get sacked for totally failing to foresee the credit crunch (in fact, let’s tell it like it is, did they get sacked for causing the credit crunch?). No! In fact they are getting more powers to regulate the economy. The Central Wankers that caused this mess in the first place. What a fucking joke!
You won’t hear about any of this in the newspapers or on the TV by the way.
The truth is not out there. It’s right here. Keep watching.
This is Fuck The Government, signing off. Take care of yourselves, and each other.
There is an answer, of course.
Borrowing.
Think of the interest rate as the extra premium, or price, you pay for having a sum of money right now. If you don’t have enough money, you can borrow it. The interest rate is the price you pay for not waiting – not saving. An entity that has funds already (another person, a bank, etc) can lend you the money and the interest is paid to them. Thus people without money but are prepared to pay extra to have it now, are brought together with people who already have money and would like a fee to loan it out.
Now, what happens when the government comes along and, instead of letting the market find an interest rate based on how many borrowers and savers there are, how much of a default risk borrowers are, etc, it says, “THE RATE OF INTEREST RATE MUST BE 0.5%”?
The same thing that always has, and always will happen when the government lowers the price of something below the market rate.
Rationing.
Savers are discouraged from saving. But lenders are still not going to lend to a default risk, even at zero interest rates. Low savings rate + reduced revenue from loans = lenders starved of funds.
The banks have had billions of our money thrown at them and they have effectively said, “what free money, don’t know what yer talking about mate” and walked away hands in their pockets whistling whilst the economy dies. If you inherited a fortune, would you want to squander it on lame investments just because the money was given to you? Of course not. That’s why low interest rates and even outright money printing won’t solve the problem. We need a real recovery based on real saving. Not a false economy based on worthless paper conjured out of thin air.
Government, of course, doesn’t want to face these hard truths. That would mean we, the hapless working stiffs who generate the real wealth in the economy would see clearly right now how much poorer we really are. The here and now is what Government cares about, because they need to get re-elected. If that means laying waste to our future, so be it. They don’t care. They’re not up for re-election in a decade. They’re up for re-election in a few years. So fuck the next generation, right?, And so the deficit financing and inflationary monetary policy continues – when Government faces an ugly truth about how little the economy can fund its parasitic activities it will always pick the easy option of robbing future generations through borrowing and the current generation through inflation, the ultimate stealth tax imposed by our contemptuous, unelected, scum sucking Central Bank.
But hey, that’s what you get when the same fucking morons who caused this mess are in charge of implementing the fix. Did the Bank of England monetary policy committee get sacked for totally failing to foresee the credit crunch (in fact, let’s tell it like it is, did they get sacked for causing the credit crunch?). No! In fact they are getting more powers to regulate the economy. The Central Wankers that caused this mess in the first place. What a fucking joke!
You won’t hear about any of this in the newspapers or on the TV by the way.
The truth is not out there. It’s right here. Keep watching.
This is Fuck The Government, signing off. Take care of yourselves, and each other.
Wednesday, 28 July 2010
The Bank of England has abandoned the inflation target.
"I read a newspaper article the other day suggesting that a little more inflation might be a good idea because it would dissolve away mortgage debt. And a very senior executive said to me: 'Aren't we going back to the bad old days when we just devalued and inflated our way out of trouble?' We know the evils of inflation. We have to be incredibly vigilant."
I think it's sometimes a good idea to start a post with a joke. So there is one above. It has to be a joke, because the quote is from no less than The Bank of England's chief economist, Spencer Dale, in a recent interview in The Independent.
It is very clear, from my reading of the latest Bank Of England monetary policy minutes, that The Bank continues to conduct its monetary policy according to the following simple rule set:
1) Under no circumstances at present, can the Bank raise interest rates or reverse Quantitative Easing
2) Therefore, try and make the evidence fit premise 1) above.
If you read the minutes, the evidence they are looking at indicates that inflation will continue to remain above target for all of this year, and next. And they have the unusual luxury of knowing with 100% certainty about one particular significant upward pressure on prices: the coalition governments planned increase in VAT to 20% in 2011. But, presumably, the higher inflation as a result of the VAT rise next year will join the ever expanding list of "temporary" factors that have led to the 2% target being exceeded month after month after month.
"And a very senior executive said to me: 'Aren't we going back to the bad old days when we just devalued and inflated our way out of trouble?'"
The "very senior executive" quoted by Dale has concisely assessed in one sentence exactly what the Bank of England is doing!
What action did the monetary policy committe decide on? Surprise surprise, continue to leave interest rates on the floor and in fact there's actually a hint there may be even more Quantitative Easing! Yes, a continuation of Wiemar Republic style money printing on the cards, in the face of an inflation rate that has and will continue to exceed the 2% target! Hence they are now cranking up the propaganda machinery: an increasing number of speeches and interviews like the one above from Bank Of England cronies telling us all just how "serious" they are about keeping inflation under control.
Bullshit!
"We know the evils of inflation."
Yes you do, Mr Dale. And you embrace them with gusto. You and your grubby cohorts in the Bank, are a (and please don't be offended by this) bunch of robbing cunts. I would like to counter-punch with this quote from Henry Hazlitt (THE INFLATION CRISIS, AND HOW TO RESOLVE IT, p32):
This is what "monetary management" really amounts to. In practice it is merely a high-sounding euphemism for continuous currency debasement. It consists of constant lying in order to support constant swindling. Instead of automatic currencies based on gold, people are forced to take managed currencies based on guile. Instead of precious metals they hold paper promises whose value falls with every bureaucratic whim.
When did Hazlitt write that? Over thirty years ago, in the late 1970s.
plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose, eh Mr Dale?
I think it's sometimes a good idea to start a post with a joke. So there is one above. It has to be a joke, because the quote is from no less than The Bank of England's chief economist, Spencer Dale, in a recent interview in The Independent.
It is very clear, from my reading of the latest Bank Of England monetary policy minutes, that The Bank continues to conduct its monetary policy according to the following simple rule set:
1) Under no circumstances at present, can the Bank raise interest rates or reverse Quantitative Easing
2) Therefore, try and make the evidence fit premise 1) above.
If you read the minutes, the evidence they are looking at indicates that inflation will continue to remain above target for all of this year, and next. And they have the unusual luxury of knowing with 100% certainty about one particular significant upward pressure on prices: the coalition governments planned increase in VAT to 20% in 2011. But, presumably, the higher inflation as a result of the VAT rise next year will join the ever expanding list of "temporary" factors that have led to the 2% target being exceeded month after month after month.
"And a very senior executive said to me: 'Aren't we going back to the bad old days when we just devalued and inflated our way out of trouble?'"
The "very senior executive" quoted by Dale has concisely assessed in one sentence exactly what the Bank of England is doing!
What action did the monetary policy committe decide on? Surprise surprise, continue to leave interest rates on the floor and in fact there's actually a hint there may be even more Quantitative Easing! Yes, a continuation of Wiemar Republic style money printing on the cards, in the face of an inflation rate that has and will continue to exceed the 2% target! Hence they are now cranking up the propaganda machinery: an increasing number of speeches and interviews like the one above from Bank Of England cronies telling us all just how "serious" they are about keeping inflation under control.
Bullshit!
"We know the evils of inflation."
Yes you do, Mr Dale. And you embrace them with gusto. You and your grubby cohorts in the Bank, are a (and please don't be offended by this) bunch of robbing cunts. I would like to counter-punch with this quote from Henry Hazlitt (THE INFLATION CRISIS, AND HOW TO RESOLVE IT, p32):
This is what "monetary management" really amounts to. In practice it is merely a high-sounding euphemism for continuous currency debasement. It consists of constant lying in order to support constant swindling. Instead of automatic currencies based on gold, people are forced to take managed currencies based on guile. Instead of precious metals they hold paper promises whose value falls with every bureaucratic whim.
When did Hazlitt write that? Over thirty years ago, in the late 1970s.
plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose, eh Mr Dale?
Wednesday, 26 May 2010
The Inflation Theft Continues
If there was any doubt, any doubt at all, about the Bank Of England's real agenda, it has been laid to rest with the latest inflation figures, showing the CPI has climbed to 3.7%, continuing the transfer of wealth from honest savers to debtors.
Yet again, another letter of explanation has been required to the Chancellor to try and cook up some excuses as to why the 2% target has been exceeded.
Those clever people in the mass media, banging on about the dangers of deflation, are exposed as the thick, sheep like state propaganda peddling fucks that they are. Time and time again I have said the deflation scare is nothing more than an outright lie. And I have been proven right.
The Bank knew that falling prices were not a danger. If they thought otherwise, why did they make sure their own pension scheme was heavily hedged against inflation in 2008? That would have proved a costly mistake for their own pensions if deflation had happened, but a very shrewd move if inflation took off. Which, of course, it has. Interesting, no?
Let's be clear what the bank is doing. It's trying to inflate the country out of its debts. It has printed money saying that it needed to raise asset prices because of a deflation danger, in fact the government needed the bank to monetise the governments debts. The so called Quantitative Easing programme has proven to be inflationary, just as I predicted.
The Bank shows no sign of raising interest rates or reversing the Quantitative Easing programme, proving it has effectively abandoned any attempt to keep inflation at or below 2%. In private, The Bank has been instructed to keep monetary policy extremely loose whatever the inflation figures do. The high inflation we are experiencing is not an accident. It is deliberate. The Bank pretends its job is to control inflation. In fact it is the source of inflation.
It seems each time we have this overshoot of the CPI, The Bank says its due to "temporary factors". Problem is, we seem to have had a lot of temporary factors, one after the other, for the past 3 years. You know what I call a string of temporary factors that keep appearing month after month? A persistent long term trend.
Even the mainstream media is starting to take notice. Maybe they've been reading this blog?
Yet again, another letter of explanation has been required to the Chancellor to try and cook up some excuses as to why the 2% target has been exceeded.
Those clever people in the mass media, banging on about the dangers of deflation, are exposed as the thick, sheep like state propaganda peddling fucks that they are. Time and time again I have said the deflation scare is nothing more than an outright lie. And I have been proven right.
The Bank knew that falling prices were not a danger. If they thought otherwise, why did they make sure their own pension scheme was heavily hedged against inflation in 2008? That would have proved a costly mistake for their own pensions if deflation had happened, but a very shrewd move if inflation took off. Which, of course, it has. Interesting, no?
Let's be clear what the bank is doing. It's trying to inflate the country out of its debts. It has printed money saying that it needed to raise asset prices because of a deflation danger, in fact the government needed the bank to monetise the governments debts. The so called Quantitative Easing programme has proven to be inflationary, just as I predicted.
The Bank shows no sign of raising interest rates or reversing the Quantitative Easing programme, proving it has effectively abandoned any attempt to keep inflation at or below 2%. In private, The Bank has been instructed to keep monetary policy extremely loose whatever the inflation figures do. The high inflation we are experiencing is not an accident. It is deliberate. The Bank pretends its job is to control inflation. In fact it is the source of inflation.
It seems each time we have this overshoot of the CPI, The Bank says its due to "temporary factors". Problem is, we seem to have had a lot of temporary factors, one after the other, for the past 3 years. You know what I call a string of temporary factors that keep appearing month after month? A persistent long term trend.
Even the mainstream media is starting to take notice. Maybe they've been reading this blog?
Wednesday, 24 March 2010
Be a Government Informer. Betray Your Family & Friends. Fabulous Prizes to be Won
"Hello? Yes I'd like to report a terrorist please. Yes, he's already responsible for the loss of many innocent lives.
An enemy of democracy?
Oh, most definitely, no question.
Does he have a fixed address?
Oh yes.
It's 10 Downing Street, London...hello?"
Tuesday, 23 February 2010
The Bank Of England's Solution To The Recession? Stagflation.
With the latest inflation figures showing yet again price rises are a continuing problem at a savings destroying 3.5%, in direct contradiction to all the deflation hysteria, it’s time to pause and take stock of the historical data.
It exposes so thoroughly the level of propaganda that masquerades as news in our mass media it’s quite frightening.
Mass media/Bank of England claim:
The credit crunch means falling prices are a greater possibility than rising prices. That could lead to a deflationary spiral so monetary policy must be extremely loose bla bla bla bullshit bullshit bla bla.
Really? Let’s have a look at the average inflation figures (Consumer Price Index) 1997 – 2009:
1997 1.8
1998 1.6
1999 1.3
2000 0.8
2001 1.2
2002 1.3
2003 1.4
2004 1.3
2005 2.1
2006 2.3
2007 2.3
2008 3.6
2009 2.2
If you had to play “spot the deflation”, what year would you pick?
Oh dear. Doesn’t the “deflationary” 2008 – 2009 period have inflation comfortably above the Bank of England’s 2% target? For that matter, also notice that post 2004 it looks suspiciously like the 2% target has become a floor, i.e. it looks like they are aiming for a minimum of 2% inflation after 2004. With an asset bubble booming out of control during that decade, to err on the upside of the inflation target is absolutely inexcusable. If the Bank of England had had any balls, it would have raised interest rates to reign in the property boom, and if that meant inflation falling well below 2%, so be it. After all, their only punishment for missing the CPI target is to write an explanatory letter, isn’t it? What a brilliant contract of employment!
Dear Chancellor of the Exchequer,
I didn’t do my job properly again this year, so as required, I am writing to tell you. Thanks and glad that’s all I need to do. Here’s to many more years of getting paid a fucking fortune to be shit.
Yours,
The Governor of the Bank of England.
But I digress.
Examining the monthly figures, which is what the monetary policy committee will take into consideration when deciding the level of interest rates (or now, god help us, also whether to print more money) at their monthly meetings:
2007 CPI at or above 2% target in 9 of the months
2008 CPI at or above 2% target in 12 of the months
2009 CPI at or above 2% target in 7 of the months
And for the 4 years 2006 – 2009:
CPI below 1% never
Where’s the fucking deflation?
Here you go, I’m getting my squeegee out and I’m rinsing my eyes real good, but every time I look I’m sorry, I just see plenty of inflation.
What fucking data are these supercilious Oxbridge cunts at the Bank of England looking at?? Have they got the right country?
Stop eroding my savings and stealing my wages you thieving fuckheads!
It exposes so thoroughly the level of propaganda that masquerades as news in our mass media it’s quite frightening.
Mass media/Bank of England claim:
The credit crunch means falling prices are a greater possibility than rising prices. That could lead to a deflationary spiral so monetary policy must be extremely loose bla bla bla bullshit bullshit bla bla.
Really? Let’s have a look at the average inflation figures (Consumer Price Index) 1997 – 2009:
1997 1.8
1998 1.6
1999 1.3
2000 0.8
2001 1.2
2002 1.3
2003 1.4
2004 1.3
2005 2.1
2006 2.3
2007 2.3
2008 3.6
2009 2.2
If you had to play “spot the deflation”, what year would you pick?
Oh dear. Doesn’t the “deflationary” 2008 – 2009 period have inflation comfortably above the Bank of England’s 2% target? For that matter, also notice that post 2004 it looks suspiciously like the 2% target has become a floor, i.e. it looks like they are aiming for a minimum of 2% inflation after 2004. With an asset bubble booming out of control during that decade, to err on the upside of the inflation target is absolutely inexcusable. If the Bank of England had had any balls, it would have raised interest rates to reign in the property boom, and if that meant inflation falling well below 2%, so be it. After all, their only punishment for missing the CPI target is to write an explanatory letter, isn’t it? What a brilliant contract of employment!
Dear Chancellor of the Exchequer,
I didn’t do my job properly again this year, so as required, I am writing to tell you. Thanks and glad that’s all I need to do. Here’s to many more years of getting paid a fucking fortune to be shit.
Yours,
The Governor of the Bank of England.
But I digress.
Examining the monthly figures, which is what the monetary policy committee will take into consideration when deciding the level of interest rates (or now, god help us, also whether to print more money) at their monthly meetings:
2007 CPI at or above 2% target in 9 of the months
2008 CPI at or above 2% target in 12 of the months
2009 CPI at or above 2% target in 7 of the months
And for the 4 years 2006 – 2009:
CPI below 1% never
Where’s the fucking deflation?
Here you go, I’m getting my squeegee out and I’m rinsing my eyes real good, but every time I look I’m sorry, I just see plenty of inflation.
What fucking data are these supercilious Oxbridge cunts at the Bank of England looking at?? Have they got the right country?
Stop eroding my savings and stealing my wages you thieving fuckheads!
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