You read that right. Bloomberg.com has reported that The bank of England has lowered it's benchmark interest rate to it's lowest point since the bank was founded in 1694. How much more proof is needed to make obvious the fact that people and businesses just aren't borrowing money any more?
Even if some stalwart soul had the inclination to borrow some money, are there banks out there which are lending it? In the face of unemployment levels which some say honest calculations put up as high as 16%, banks are becoming adverse to lending money to anyone who might actually need it. Of course I can get you credit card applications all day long, if you're willing to pay upwards of 19% interest on new money.
So you have to wonder, when is it all going to break loose. Honestly folks, if the promise of increased revenue reserves was in any way going to help us, don't you think the contraction would have slowed by now? The only way additional cash will correct anything is if that cash is put directly into the hands of the people who pay the bills. Of course, we all know that will never happen. Our government will continue to drop wads of our yet unpaid tax dollars into the laps of their corporate sponsors. That, for now, is where the buck now stops.
Bank of England lowers interest rates to lowest point since The Revolution
Posted Jan 9th 2009 6:00PM by Gary E. Sattler
Filed under: Rants and raves, Recession, Financial Crisis
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-10-2009 @ 12:25PM
al coholic said...
Your link to the 16% unemployment rate leads to a forbidden page. But it doesn't matter. Actually, in the last 20 years or so, the way service and construction companies have morphed into 1099 empires underestimates unemployment figures so badly that comparisons with previous decades are irrelevant.
It is important to realize that most 1099 guys who become unemployed never attempt to collect unemployment but rather fall further into the depths of the "cash" underground economy, which has been estimated to be 20 to 30% of our total GDP.
9-17-2009 @ 4:49AM
Krista said...
The only way additional cash will correct anything is if that cash is put directly into the hands of the people who pay the bills...Thanks for your info shared with us.