November 11, 2014

Lord Turner, if a helicopter is to drop money, then drop it on the citizens, who are those who will have to pay for it.

Sir, not only does Bank of England buy huge amounts of government bonds; and banks do not need to hold any equity against these bonds, so they are also big buyers; and new bank liquidity requirements will also favor them holding sovereign instruments.

But now Lord Turner, to top it up, also wants to make a Friedman helicopter drop of money, on the government, on its bureaucrats, to finance a special one shot deficit, “Print money to fund the deficit – that is the fastest way to raise rates” November 11. He really must adore government!


I have no problem with the concept of a helicopter drop (I have a gold hedge) but, if something goes terribly wrong, and run inflation results, it will be the poor who suffer the most. And so I would suggest dropping that money directly on the British citizens.

Lord Turner explains the “current mess” in terms of “excessive private sector credit growth”. Indeed, but let us not forget that, as a bank regulators, by allowing the outright stupid credit-risk-weighted capital/equity requirements for banks, was himself much guilty of that. 

That regulation caused banks to leverage their equity to the skies; completely distorted the allocation of bank credit in the real economy, and, by favoring “the infallible” and discriminating against “the risky” is also a driver of growing inequality. 

And we are to trust them?

PS. If we know that inflation is primarily a tax on the poor, then why is deflation so bad for the poor?