ZoomClouds: John Redwood MP for Wokingham

... orities do seem to have realised that pushing thousands of sub prime mortgagees into default is not a clever “ or pleasant “ thing to do. The cuts in interest rates have come thick and fast from the Fed, as they fight to get rates down to a level where more people can hope to pay the mortgage and ke...

Halve interest rates. Cut out waste and undesirable public spending. Sell some public sector assets to raise cash. The government should do all three if it is serious about preventing recession or recovering from the downturn. Money is too tight and interest rates too...

... ge market has dried up, and because the Treasury and Bank are keeping conditions tight by running off the Northern Rock book and by their approach to interest rates. I am going to ask some questions of how that forecast was arrived at, and ask Ministers to explain the inconsistencies of their app...

... down than that the prices of energy, food and other essentials are going up. They could take action to make more mortgage money available, by cutting interest rates to stimulate mortgage demand, but they fear that might lead to more money being borrowed to push up the prices of other things. The FSA...

Readers of this site will know I have long been advocating that the Bank of England cuts interest rates and concentrates on fighting recession. Inflation will fall next year anyway. This has proved contentious with some of my readers. I ask them, how much more evidence do you need of slow...

The Bank of England meets this week to decide interest rates with its policy in tatters. Its sole aim is to keep inflation down to 2% per annum. The reason behind that instruction is to uphold the purchasing power of our currency. Neglect has led to a big devaluation of the pound, meaning our pur...

... s have always been sharper and more realistic about the aftermath of the bubble than the other jurisdictions of the world. They were the first to cut interest rates, the first to lend big money to ailing institutions and the first to use a tax cutting package to stimulate demand. Many ...

The Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England (MPC) failed to control inflation on the way up, allowing interest rates that were too low for too long. The Uk made its own contribution to the world credit bubble, and has its own high inflation as a result. Expect more bad figures today. Now ...

... 5% cut in their recommended rate at the next meeting or they may delay further. Why does the MPC always want to get it wrong? They failed to put interest rates up enough in the days of easy credit. Their failure meant too much borrowing and a big increase in inflation. Now when it is obvious ...

... ack briefing from the top. What could the meeting of European leaders usefully do? There are five main areas they could concentrate on. Interest rates. They could tell the ECB and Gordon Brown could tell the Bank of England to get their rates down to around the 2% level chosen by the...

... nments lurch from one inappropriate response to another in response to a fast moving banking crisis. Governments helped create the crisis, by keeping interest rates too low and looking the other way as the banks and Shadow banks heaped debts on debts. Then governments helped bring the crisis on by k...

... olicy where borrowing is thought to be high, as total high borrowing may reduce market confidence causing problems with raising borrowing at sensible interest rates and adding to inflationary pressure through lower sterling. Item 5 includes a big build up in administrative central government and q...

... hy some were renewed and some were not. The Committee was given an easier target to hit in December 2003 at a time when they should have been putting interest rates up. They were effectively told to cut rates recently as part of a concerted international move, one day before they had undertaken thei...

Readers will know I have wanted cuts in interest rates to stave off recession for many months. I have gone hoarse telling the MPC they have got it wrong again, lurching from too easy to too tight. This week, instead of having their normal MPC meeting wasting time reaching the obvious conclusion...

The MPC should be changed, before it does any more damage. In my New Year message at the end of 2007 I called again for lower interest rates. It was obvious that rates were too high, and they would bring many job losses and factory closures. Inflation would rise during 2008 owing to previous MPC...

... s at last caught sight of the downturn. Its Report is likely to bring us more gloom and doom as it seeks to justify its late lurch from high to lower interest rates. Because it has got it all so hopelessly wrong, it will now have to spread more doom to justify its actions. It is still far from helpf...

... arer labour in the west, and sometimes have used the borrowed money to buy cheaper products from the East. Now the Western authorities through higher interest rates and tougher banking regulation have called time on the private sector borrowing which sustained this. So now there has to be a very pai...

For months I have been saying interest rates need to come down to 2-3%. The authorities now seem to agree. For months I have also been saying our public deficit is too high and rising too fast, and needs to be controlled if we cut interest rates to stimulate the economy. Now the Treasury agrees...

Interest rates are the price of borrowing money. When the private sector was borrowing too much, the Bank kept the price too low, encouraging many more people to pay too much for houses, and alowing businesses to pay too much for commodities and raw materials. Then they decided to e...

... Now we are getting the bankruptcies and job losses that were the inevitable consequence of their decision, they strangely panic and slash interest rates. This would usually be the right course of action, but in the meantime the government has decided to increase the amount of borrowing i...

... are all too many more companies in distress, or good companies that cannot get the borrowings they need to see them over a difficult patch. Interest rates are the price of borrowing money. When the private sector was borrowing too much, the Bank kept the price too low, encouraging many mor...

... dilemma. The authorities visited this crunch on us, because they judged we were collectively borrowing too much and spending too much. They hiked the interest rates and later told the banks to lend less for the level of capital they held. Now they don™t like the results that come from jamming on the...

... progress of sorts that the Bank of England now admits it got it wrong in 2003-6, when it allowed excess to build up in the banking system by keeping interest rates too low. When will they also admit they got it wrong in 2006-7, when they kept interest rates too high, bringing the pack of card...

... ufacturing output in the weeks ahead, as there is now a big shut down underway which will last well into the New Year. People ask why the lower interest rates and the budget stimuli are not working. The answer is simple. It always takes time for them to work in normal circumstances. Interest r...

... xpayers. 2. Establishing a state owned œbad bank to buy up and work through some of the poor loans from the commercial banks. 3. Cutting interest rates further, perhaps to around zero. 4. Revisiting the state guarantee package for private sector lending. This is a ...