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MEP dismisses QE as ‘counterfeiting by any other name’
MEP defends his stance to raise interest rates to 6 per cent, saying that spending and borrowing is “still out of control”.
Pumping money into the economy via asset purchases, otherwise known as quantitative easing, is “counterfeiting by any other name” and if a private citizen attempted it “they would go to prison”, a member of the European Parliament has claimed.
Godfrey Bloom, MEP for Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire, does not think QE is sustainable, claiming that politicians can only raise money by “taxation and borrowing”.
He said: “There comes a time when they can no longer do this as they have binged for too long and the taxpayer and investor have been bled dry.
“They call it quantitative easing but it is counterfeiting by any other name and if the private citizen attempted it they would go to prison. Fractional reserve banking is the name of the game.”
Mr Bloom argued that we now have a system where eight central banks are “competing for currency devaluation”, including the European Central Bank, the Fed and the Bank of England but “leading the field” is the central bank of China, Switzerland and the Bundesbank.
Mr Bloom’s comments follow an interview with FTAdviser last week, in which he stated that he believes interest rates should be six per cent now instead of being kept at their all-time low rate of 0.5 per cent.
FTAdviser readers broadly slammed the suggestion in comments on the article, suggesting broadly that the move would adversely affect families and homeowners.
In response Mr Bloom said: “Most of it [the reaction] was personal vilification which bodes rather ill as it came from a supposedly professional readership. I was hoping for a rather higher standard of debate.
“We have a disastrous situation with interest rates at zero, zombie banks, the lowest savings ratio in the Anglosphere for years and, no wonder, we have rife speculation by banks who only lend back to government and not businesses.
“The money printing must stop. Public spending and borrowing is still out of control - yes it is, do your homework - and savers and investors must be brought back to the market.”
