The Bank of England’s decision to trim its key interest rate by another quarter point this week was widely expected, but there is still plenty to write about. Unfortunately, little of this is good news. For a start, why on earth is the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) still cutting rates when the Bank itself now … Continue reading The Government cannot take credit for the cuts in UK interest rates
Tag: MPC
No, the MPC doesn’t have a time machine…
The larger than anticipated jump in UK inflation in April has prompted many to argue that the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee will now be much slower to cut interest rates. But there is, of course, nothing that the MPC can do now about last month’s CPI. The right question to ask is what … Continue reading No, the MPC doesn’t have a time machine…
A presentation on the UK economy and monetary policy
Here are the slides from a presentation I gave earlier today to the Shadow Monetary Policy Committee hosted by the IEA. This covered the latest news on the global and the UK economies, the state of play on tariffs, the economic consequences of Mr Trump, how central banks should respond, and how I would vote … Continue reading A presentation on the UK economy and monetary policy
Tumbling energy prices will provide just a little relief from a tariff war
President Trump’s tariff war has already had a large number of consequences – intended or otherwise – for the global economy. But the slump in energy prices is at least one result that we can welcome. On Monday the price of a barrel of Brent fell to US$64, down about 16pc from the average of … Continue reading Tumbling energy prices will provide just a little relief from a tariff war
Plain-speaking Economics 