Myopic Mervyn makes making money sound too easy

I'm quantitatively easing myself back into reality!

Sir Mervyn King sounded so very affable as he told the BBC how his money printing exercise was going to help the UK economy. But therein lies the trouble. He could make an alchemist sound like a real scientist. Make fake flowers look real. It's all fantasy stuff and not many in the British public have fallen for his guff. Those popping up on TV news channels from the banks are spinning their lines, but the Clapham omnibus is overloaded with people of contrary opinion.

This money is going into the banks so they can do whatever with it. Let's see if they know any better than they did last week. However, I like the comment from Kevin W on the BBC website (Kevin's got 160 positive votes so far!) -

I don't understand why we continue to feed money into a banking system which then uses the money to shore up its own bank balance, pay itself lavish bonuses & refuses to issue loans. 

Surely we should just give the money to taxpayers who would either use the windfall to purchase goods or repay debts, in turn the money would filter through to where it’s needed, businesses & HMRC.

He speaks for many it seems. Over 1,000 comments on the subject and all seem to be of a similar vein. The British people aren't buying this. As he says, Mervyn King and his cronies would be far better off giving the cash to the people. That would stimulate the economy far better than the schemes and plots hatched by the banks. And has King got a guarantee that none of this money will end up in bonuses for the likes of Bob Diamond at Barclays? We need to know in the best interests of transparency.

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Money printers get ready to roll their presses!

New money comes spewing out!

We may be in for more printing of money today. Well, not actually printing the stuff, more a case of easing it quantitatively through government computers (mindful that the Taxpayers' Alliance might be watching!) and telling the country that -

NEW MONEY!

is available to help the economy out of the doldrums. Do they take us for fools? They surely do!

UPDATE at 12.30pm

It's going to be £75 billion. I'm just wondering who will actually benefit. Perhaps we could have an audit trail published to tell us where each pound is going?

The news has been met with feint enthusiasm from the CBI. Ian McCafferty, the CBI's chief economic adviser says, "This measure will help support confidence, but we need to recognise that its impact on near term growth prospects is likely to be relatively modest. Only once the turmoil in the eurozone is resolved will confidence be fully restored."

How long is a piece of string?

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George Osborne pledges Budget growth for economy

"My box of tricks"

George Osborne is about to get up and tell us whether we are going to be better off or worse off. That's the usual stuff of budgets and chancellors. However, this budget is different, I think. We can either carry on with boom and bust or we can all be grown up and realise that the economy does not work itself but we work the economy.

The Coalition is doing some good things. It is doing some odd things. I don't think it has done that many bad things so far. However, they talk about tackling corporate sleaze but appear to be doing it through clenched teeth. It's no good talking to the bosses of big business as if one is attending an amateur ventriloquists convention. "Gottle of geer!" is no way to convince the bamboozlers we are serious.

Britain needs entrepreneurial activity, it needs new ideas for new products, it needs workers working sensible hours for good pay. It short we need to create real added value to everything we do. What we have had in recent years is fake money creating fake wealth. I saw the Bank of England officials withering under the scrutiny of the Treasury Select Committee. The Bank has a nice little video about "quantitative easing" (the 21st century's best  ever euphemism!) where they admit that money is created electronically. The female voiceover makes you think it is all so wonderful. Like a holiday in the Canaries!

THEY CREATE THE MONEY OUT OF THIN AIR!!!

So if George Osborne can turn the culture of bogus bond creation around, turn the fiddlers and fakers out and bring in the real workers, the real ideas people, the entrepreneurs, the wealth creators, then we will all be better off.

Let the bamboozlers pay their taxes, let the electronic moneymakers get a real shock from their machines, and turn the so-called tax havens into tax harvests.

If we are all in this together, we should be going in the same direction, for similar goals and similar aims.

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Quantitative easing back for more cash!

Printing money is old hat. Quantitative easing is the new kid on the block. Actually a spotty teenager by now. The Monetary Policy Committee is chewing over whether to "pump more money" into the system. Who is being consulted on all this? Bernie Madoff in his jail cell?

I'd like to know, if this new QE idea gets the nod, which computer button gets pushed and from where does the "pumping" start? BP doesn't bother with empty wells so is the MPC any different?

Commenting on this Guardian article, Snix says -

"How much longer will this giant ponzi scheme go on for ? Who will decide to revert to the gold standard first? Those left holding worthless currencies will look so foolish. Better go and tend my garden."

Giant ponzi scheme indeed. It seems there's one rule for Bernie Madoff and another for the central bankers. But are they any different?

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