In full: Former BoE Governor warns of a 'very unpleasant period' ahead

Former Bank of England Governor Mervyn King blames central banks for fuelling the cost of living crisis by printing too much money during the pandemic.

King headed Britain's central bank from 2003 to 2013, and oversaw the start of its QE programme in March 2009 during the global financial crisis.

But in more recent years he has criticised the scale of central bank asset purchases, which were funded by newly-created money.

#BankOfEngland #Economy #Business #Costoflivingcrisis

[jivebunny]

What people like King never admit is that after a period of 10% inflation, even if inflation then falls back to the magic 2%, prices are still 12% minimum higher than they were a 18 months before. Prices will never return to where they were before huge inflation struck, thus the demands for huge wage rises will persist in the medium term.

[mattjones]

Isn’t it amazing how all these people suddenly develop 20/20 vision after they leave positions of power where they could actually have done something about the problems and causes they see so clearly

[samantha]

The Central Banks have been printing big time since 2008, which has been devaluing the purchasing power of our currencies

[mcr]

Government requires inflation to manage debt, central bank is trying to help create it, not fight it. Inflation is stealth tax.

[lewis]

I work in customer service for an energy company, seeing peoples bills almost double is just awful 😖

[morskisrle]

"inflation stayed 2% since than till now"

Well I calculated my living inflation from 2005 to 2020 and came across to figures from 4-12% a year. Region of the Netherlands. Items included were salami, rice, eggs, swimming ticket, plane ticket, shoes, electronics, kebab, rent. A secnd way to see the official inflations figures are manipulated/not truth was to compare minimum.wage at burger king as opposed to price of a whooper menu. In 2010 i could buy 2 to 2, 5 menu's for 1h of work while in 2020 it came to 1, 3. That is an inflation of 100% in 10 years. Annual inflation calculate yourself.

With other words we were delibaretely manipulated OR we are dealing with morons with a lot of power and fancy suits.

The moment I realised that i sold my money and as much as possible hedged against inflation.

[rodpetrie]

I was waiting for Mervyn King to speak on this subject to see whether his opinion confirmed my own suspicions. I have always though King was a man of great integrity and pragmatism, he did not disappoint. We hear much about the cause of inflation from our clueless politicians and economists, the pandemic, Ukraine, supply chain, energy costs and the rests. These elements are contributory of course but do not run to the true cause. The true cause is the continuous dilution of our currency through endless quantitative easing. We are living beyond our means and have been doing so for many years and I fear a rude awakening beckons.

[fredflintstone]

How can we get to almost 20 mins in this interview and not talk about the inflated stock market, the inflated housing market, the number of zero contract jobs....the role of crypto currencies, the roll-out of

[ebutuoy]

The absolute audacity to say inflation has been kept down since the 90s! Even before this crisis, what about the price of homes? Virtually everything has inflated massively when compared directly with wages stagnating.

[CoreyChambersLA]

As the wise people warned from the beginning, the over-reaction would be worse than the disease.

[wicky]

People in general are seriously spooked by the increasing energy costs, which along with food costs.
We gone from " full bore, flat out" to "throw the anchor out " and have stopped spending on anything but essentials.
Massive job losses and the mother of all recessions is beyond doubt

[Rangetechus]

…part of the problem folks…part, but not all…
Workers haven’t been paid fairly for decades.
Politicians haven’t been responsible to the people for decades…

[mypointofview]

He should know what a recession looks like having been in the thick of the last one caused by the banks & investment firms playing roulette with peoples futures and lives.

[DanSme]

And what about those on a pension or fixed income? They get crushed as the currency loses value, experienced as rising prices.

[andrewbartlett]

Very good interview. Refreshing to finally hear someone with authority pointing out the money printing as the main cause for the inflation

[paulb]

The BoE have failed miserably to control inflation and the value of sterling. Inflation hit 5% after the first chunk of QE in 2009, now 10% after the pandemic QE chunk. Rather than reversing some of the money printing to strengthen the pound, I think the BoE will re-start the printing press again when the recession hits.

[jillbarrett]

An interview where the interviewer allowed the subject to answer fully. Refreshing.

[henrypayne]

Except this time there's way too much debt in the whole system to raise rates to where they should/need to be. Great for Gov's to inflate away their debts but as usual hurts the regular working person

[Nabraska]

Inflation wasn’t showing up because they kept taking out key inflation indicators so it looked like there was no inflation like housing.. but they knew exactly what they were doing and they know what will be coming.. we are talk about the global financial engineers..

[ohnoitisnt]

Its not energy prices. ITS HOUSING!

Single guy employed living in a one bed:
£200 food
£800 rent
£200 housing
£150 housing tax
£25 Mobile phone
£200 vehicle fuel
£200 vehicle tax/insurance/maintenence
£7 netflix
=Lets call that £1800/mth overhead

Gross pay £28k, minus tax, = £1900 take home

£100 a month spare = £3 per day. 4 pints down the local saturday night.

Housing is currently 7x average yearly wage. In the 90's it was 3x. In the 50s it was 1x.
Housing prices have been bidded up by a decade of cheap money - look at the history if interest rates and tell me that 14 years of less than 1% interest is normal...