Response to Bank of England analysis of QE impacts
Ros published a response to Bank of England conclusions that its policies have not damaged the economy or pensions.
Bank Of England Is Wrong To Suggest Pension Funds And Annuity Purchasers Have Not Been Hurt By QE
Ros comments on the Bank of England’s research into the distributional impacts of Quantitative Easing and low interest rates.
QE forces UK pensions into 'death spiral'
Ros explains the damage being done to UK final salary pension schemes as deficits mount and gilt prices rise, forcing schemes to face a ‘death spiral’.
Means-testing pensioner benefits would be like reducing the pensions only of pensioners who've saved
Ros responds to calls for pensioner benefits to be means-tested, pointing out that this could require means-testing six million pensioners, it would risk undermining savings incentives, as well as failing many of the poorest pensioners who need the money but don’t claim.
Another £50bn QE will not work – why is Bank ignorning evidence that QE has failed
Ros warns that the Bank of Englands announcement of a further £50bn gilt-buying with a third round of QE will not produce growth, it will help the banks, but not the economy. The Bank seems to be ignoring the evidence that QE is damaging important areas of the economy.
Of course older workers should be better off than younger ones
Ros comments on a paper from the Institute for Fiscal Studies which shows that older generations are better off than those in their 20s and 30s, suggesting that this is something to be concerned about! Surely this is the normal way of things, young people should aspire to be better off when they reach the end of their working life, that’s a success!
More QE will be bad for the UK economy – distorting gilt yields is dangerous
Ros responds to an interview in which David Miles of the Bank of England calls for further QE to stimulate the economy. She points out that this would be dangerous, that gilt yields are already distorted and that QE is continuing to damage growth and pensions.
June inflation shows welcome fall, but still above target
Ros comments on latest inflation figures for June 2012, showing a fall in cpi to 2.5%, which is welcome news for savers at last. Inflation remains above target however, and is still affecting older generations more than others.
QE acts like a stealth tax on older generations
Press Release highlighting the damage done by QE to older generations and to pension funds, calling on Bank of England to recognise dangers of buying gilts.
Relax the pension discount rate – current gilt yields are not appropriate
Ros calls on the Government to relax the discount rate used for calculating pension liabilities