March 06, 2014

FT, perhaps you should ask for some time out in order to collect your marbles.

Sir I refer to your “The BoE’s big test is yet to come” March 6.

You write “QE has increased wealth inequality” true, but then, sort of as an excuse, you hold that “some of this inequality is temporary and will be reversed when the monetary support is withdrawn”. A truly astonishing statement that can only be interpreted in the animas of Keynes’ “in the long run we are all dead”.

And then you write: “QE… failed to produce the kind of sharp rebound policy makers had hoped for… The banks have failed to lend to smaller enterprises, which would have helped to spur growth”. True, but then again, as a sort of excuse you hold that “the BoE does not decide what banks… do with their money”. And that Sir you should know by now, at least from my over 1000 letters to FT on the subject, is a completely false statement.

BoE, by approving of different capital requirements for banks for different assets, based on ex ante risk perceptions, allow banks to earn different risk-adjusted returns on equity for different assets… and if you think that does not represent the kind of carrots and sticks that make banks decide what to do with their money, then you might be in need of some time out in order to collect your marbles.