Monday, January 12, 2009

Old banks further my confusion

Apparently the Bank of England has cut interest rates to 1.5%, reminiscent of the US Fed dropping rates to nothing. I understand what dropping the interest rate is supposed to accomplish, but why the hell isn't it working. Our economy is still in free fall, and it appears that the BoE is ready to further drop rates in the next quarter. If it didn't work the first time why bother trying again. Maybe try a different tactic to free up lending or maybe just suck it up and realise we are in a worldwide depression and start saving what little money you may have. The rate cuts seem to be completely ineffective at stimulating lending, much like the bailouts which have accomplished much of nothing aside from furthering our own indebtedness. Maybe business should start slashing prices to an amount that's actually a good deal for people with no money, clearing out a lot of inventory and rejiggering their business models to account for a crippled economy. Currently we don't make much of anything and if you want work you had better be looking in the crap pay service sector, businesses need to be prepared for that and start catering to the paycheck to paycheck demographic if they expect people to buy their shit. For some reason I can't get my head around the need for people to borrow money when they won't likely have a job in which to pay it back. Lending really shouldn't be critical point in a sustainable economy. Good jobs and healthy savings seem much more important to me.

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