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February 9th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda - £325bn has now been pumped in to economy under quantitative easing programme
- Even MORE could be printed before the end of the year, economists predict
- Interest rates have been at 0.5% since March 2009
By
Rob Cooper
Last updated at 4:36 PM on 9th February 2012
The Bank of England today injected a further £50billion into the economy and held interest rates at 0.5 per cent.
They voted to increase quantitative easing – effectively printing more cash – despite the risk of higher inflation.
Critics said the new round of
quantitative easing is ‘yet another devastating blow’ to pensioners and
will inflict ‘dreadful damage’ on the record number of workers
approaching retirement because it adversely affects annuity rates.
Printing money: The Bank of England announced a £50bn boost to their quantitative easing programme today as the base rate was held at 0.5%
But business leaders said further stimulus would ‘support confidence’ and welcomed the decision.
£275billion has already been pumped into
the economy under the QE programme and today’s move will increase the total to £325billion –
the equivalent of 20 per cent of GDP.
The Bank also again held interest rates at their record low of 0.5 per cent. The base rate has remained unchanged since March 2009.
The new £50billion QE purchase, voted for by the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), will take three months to complete.
Under Quantitative Easing, which started in 2009, the Bank buys up Government bonds largely from banks,
freeing up money to be lent to consumers and small businesses.
They acted today amid fears that the economy will slip back into recession after contracting by 0.2 per cent in the final quarter of 2011. A recession is two successive quarters of negative economic growth.
Explaining the move, officials said that while recent business surveys have ‘painted a more positive picture’, the pace of expansion in the eurozone – the UK’s main export market – has slowed and ‘concerns remain’ about the region’s debt levels.
The Government and the Bank have both
placed much of the blame for the UK’s economic difficulties on the
troubles in the eurozone, which still have no clear resolution.
Shadow chancellor Ed Balls said that the economy was hampered by spending cuts – and that QE would not perform ‘miracles’.
‘The Bank of England is doing all it can to try and boost our flatlining economy, but it can’t perform miracles,’ he said.
‘Simply printing more money cannot offset the contractionary effects of George Osborne’s tax rises and spending cuts that go too far and too fast – a ‘drag’ on growth that the Governor of the Bank of England acknowledges in his letter today.
‘With interest rates at record lows and confidence depressed, there is only so much a further loosening of monetary policy can do. After all, since the last round of quantitative easing was announced in October our economy has gone into reverse.
‘Three years ago George Osborne said that quantitative easing was the last resort of desperate governments. He is now desperately hoping it will bail out his failing economic policy.
‘But with unemployment soaring and £158 billion more borrowing than planned, what we desperately need is a change of course and Labour’s five-point plan for jobs and growth to get our economy moving again and so get the deficit down.’
Economists have predicted that even more money could be printed.
The Bank has already pumped £275billion of newly-created money into the economy
REPOSSESSIONS AT LOWEST SINCE 2007
Record low interest rates have helped push the number of repossessions in the UK to the lowest level since 2007, but they are set to soar to 45,000 by the end of the year as unemployment worsens, lenders warned today.
Some 36,200 properties were repossessed in 2011, around 4,000 fewer than had been forecast.
Continued pressures on living costs are likely to drive the figure back up this year, the Council of Mortgage Lenders said.
The body put 2011’s lower-than-expected results down to interest rates, as the Bank of England maintains the base rate at a historic 0.5 per cent low, as well as lenders’ forbearance.
The CML said lenders have been reducing rates temporarily or switching them to interest-only mortgages to help borrowers, as well as extending the dates for when payments are due.
Recent research from Halifax found that mortgage payments for new borrowers have reached their most affordable levels for 14 years, with average payments standing at 27 per cent of disposable earnings, well below the 37 per cent long-term average.
But as consumers come under more pressure, the CML predicts that 180,000 mortgages will be in arrears of 2.5 per cent or more of the mortgage balance by the end of 2012, up from 159,400 at the end of last year.
CML director general Paul Smee said: ‘Low interest rates and good arrears management by lenders are helping the vast majority of those borrowers who face difficulties to keep their homes and get back on track.’
Thomas Paterson, chief
economist at gold broker, Gold Made Simple, said: ‘We expect the Bank
of England to print at least an additional £100bn-150bn before the year
is out.
Chancellor George Osborne authorised today’s move.
Prime Minister David Cameron backed the move saying it made ‘good sense’.
Speaking from a summit in the Swedish capital, Stockholm, he said: ‘This is the right stance to have.
‘The combination of a tight fiscal policy with a looser monetary policy is the right answer for the UK and so I support what the Bank of England have done.
‘It is a policy stance that makes good sense for the economy.’
But pensioners’ groups have highlighted the difficulties such policy action can cause for retirees.
Annuity investors have seen rates
plummet in recent years, as pensioners have faced a ‘perfect storm’ of
high living costs and low returns on their savings.
The policy also has an impact on inflation, meaning pensioners can face higher living costs.
Ros Altmann, director-general of Saga, said the ‘short-term stimulus’ of QE has ‘very dangerous long-term consequences’.
She
said: ‘Around half a million annuities are sold each year and, since
2008, annuity rates have fallen by about 25 per cent, most of which is
due to the effect of QE.
‘That
means over a million pensioners will be permanently poorer for the rest
of their lives, as they have bought an annuity at rates that have been
artificially depressed by the Bank of England.’
But the move was welcomed by David Kern, chief economist at the British Chambers of Commerce.
He said: ‘Although the benefits are
not immediately obvious to the business community, quantitative easing
plays a key role in strengthening the financial system and stabilising
the wider economy.’
Prime Minister David Cameron, speaking in Sweden, backed Quantitative Easing saying it made ‘good sense’
TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said the decision was the ‘right thing to do, given the weak state of our economy’.
He
added: ‘But more needs to be done to ensure that this latest injection
of cash actually reaches the businesses that need it, rather than just
gathering dust on banks’ balance sheets.’
Steve Wilkie, managing director of
Responsible Equity Release, an equity release specialist, said: ‘In
printing more money, the Bank of England has demonstrated its absolute
focus on revitalising the economy.
‘But printing money has a cost that is often overlooked in the frantic dash to get the economy back on track.
‘While QE may stimulate the economy, what are the side effects for the consumer?
‘Not only could inflation rise again,
placing more pressure on household finances, but in buying up more
gilts, the Bank will invariably drive down yields, which will have an
adverse effect on pension funds and annuities.
‘High inflation hits consumers and low yields on gilts hit pensioners and those saving for retirement.’
Meanwhile, figures revealed the manufacturing sector returned to growth in January and the services sector saw a record leap in optimism.
Despite the upbeat data, most analysts insisted it was still too early to call a recovery after respected thinktank NIESR warned recently that the UK economy would shrink by 0.1 per cent in 2012 amid weak investment and uncertain conditions.
BOOM IN BUY-TO LET MORTGAGES AS RENT PRICES RISE
£14.1billion worth of buy-to-let mortgages were issued by banks last year, the highest figure since 2008.
In total, 124,000 such mortgages were issued last year, up from 94,100 in 2010 as the market continued to recover, the Council of Mortgages Lenders said.
Interest in the buy-to-let sector has grown because rent prices have risen as would-be first time buyers struggle to get on the property ladder.
Despite being the strongest figures since 2008, the 2011 results still sit at half the £28 billion worth of buy-to-let mortgage approvals in that year, showing the market remains ‘relatively subdued’ by historic standards, the body said.
CML director-general Paul Smee said: ‘Buy-to-let lending continues to perform well.
‘Demand for rented property remains
high, so the rationale for buy-to-let remains strong, and there is
little reason to foresee any change to this positive outlook for the
sector.
‘These figures do not suggest that
buy-to-let is crowding out first-time buyers; more that it is performing
a really important role within the overall housing market.
‘The benefits of the availability of
good quality, private rented housing should not be overlooked,
especially as there are many households which need the flexibility and
mobility that the private rented sector is well placed to provide.’
Lenders have been gradually expanding their deals to attract landlords, but the CML insisted the latest figures showed that first-time buyers were not being ‘crowded out’ of the market.
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Got any savings? Spend them now while you can, investing in a pension, STOP, you are throwing money down the drain. Working for a living, watch how your salary stagnates or even reduces, whilst your bills skyrocket.
The only people doing alright in the UK are the breeding underclasses in their taxpayer funded council houses and bankers and politicians.
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When will people wake up and and understand that QE = INFLATION.which is just another form of TAXATION.
– Keith Sutton-Jones, Darlington Co.Durham, 9/2/2012 15:18 Well Said Inflation + Taxation = a new word which i have called “TAXFLATION”
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Only £50 BILLION? Quantitative Easing (QE)is a phrase we can hardly pronounce, simply because some boffin thinks if we cannot SAY it, we wont talk about it. It sounds far to technical and ‘bankerish’ for lesser (paid) mortals to understand. Simply, QE = Devaluation of the pound. It is like pouring water into Whiskey – it’s diluted. Add too much water and the flavour just about remains, but the desired effect has gone! What they have (very quietly) done is to dilute/devalue sterling by £325Billion. Are you beginning to understand why the pound still remains at the same(ish) level as the dying Euro? Why imported food costs more? Look at the increases in Cotton, Coffee and Tea! Fuel is traded in dollars, fortunately, and decent German cars in Euros. Otherwise we’d be out on the streets! Oh, £50Billion? Equals about TEN Nimitz class nuclear Aircraft Carriers, minus the a/craft! And we have got..? Precisely. Run an economy? They could not run a raffle!
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is like the goverment is borrowing peoples saveing . will savers get there mony back ?
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BAD
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@ Phil , Ashford Uk, 9/2/2012 16:16. “Forgive me but I always thought that the printing of money was the province of Banana Republics.” Err, yes. What was your question?
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HI british people…………you are becoming POORER AS A RESULT………..BLAME THE EU THOUGH IF YOU like,you are only deluding yourselves. MInd you,its not your fault,you didnt vote for a bank to run your country.
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It real is time the poor old savers were given a break. 3 years of holding down the Poor Hard Working Married Families mortages down, whilst savers and the old folk suffer. The £ is been kept at an artifical low to help exports and the Ex-Pat see their pensions reduced by 30% on exchange rates. Where is all this QE money going, the banks filling up their coffers for the next BONUS payouts. Certainly NOT helping with adding Growth to the Country or the Small and Medium companies. Why do politicians think we are as STUPID as they are.
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Forgive me but I always thought that the printing of money was the province of Banana Republics.
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What’s the point of printing skip loads of money? Unless they hand it out to every debt-ridden citizen (me) it is pointless.
– Nick, Sale England, 09/2/2012 15:34….In fact Nice, Sale’s amuing comment is actual economic truth, as Joseph Stiglitz, former World Bank Chief Economist has pointed out in his books such as Freefall. In order to stiulate an economy effectively, eg in the UK, you should increase both the net pay of the low paid and the benefits paid to those not working. Why? Because these groups live from hand to mouth. Extra money given to them will feed into the real economy immediately, for goods and services of all kinds. Tax breaks to the wealthy (or, as with QE, in effect to wealthy companies and to banks) will be just planted in offshore or other hedging assets such as property, land, gold etc. In other words, apart from being in effect a scam on old people and other savers etc, QE is a stimulus which starts too high up the economic pyramid. This govt will never do it
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