Saturday, February 20, 2016

According to CNBC's Robert Frank, a Bank of England report shows that its quantitative easing policies had benefited mainly the wealthy, and that 40% of those gains went to the richest 5% of British households. Dhaval Joshi of BCA Research wrote that "QE cash ends up overwhelmingly in profits, thereby exacerbating already extreme income inequality and the consequent social tensions that arise from it". Anthony Randazzo of the Reason Foundation wrote that QE "is fundamentally a regressive redistribution program that has been boosting wealth for those already engaged in the financial sector or those who already own homes, but passing little along to the rest of the economy. It is a primary driver of income inequality". In May 2013, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Richard Fisher said that cheap money has made rich people richer, but has not done quite as much for working Americans.  The majority of citizens lost a great deal since the financial crisis in 2008. Savage 'austerity' cuts, increase in VAT, (yet tax cuts for large corporations) has led to a devastating impact on public services, small businesses on our High Streets going bust, over a million people using food banks and an increase of suicides... I could go on.  The finance industry toxic financial products; price manipulations; market bubbles and just blatant fraud, is unsustainable and ordinary people should not continue to pay for this crime in the financial sector. This is not 'capitalism', this is not a 'free-market' and smaller business cannot compete.  If the bankers were prosecuted and went to jail for their crimes back in 2008, like they did in Iceland and the US reinstated the Glass–Steagall Act and we had the equivalent in the UK, the Markets would not be in the volatile state we constantly see. Savers would be more protected. Only robust effective regulation can stabilise the Markets.

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