Today's inflation figures are welcome, but is has become increasingly clear to me that high interest rates have been the wrong choice.
Interest rates are an outdated and class driven way of impacting inflation. It first hits the working class, then the middle classes. This reflects a society that is failing to evolve & truly want social mobility.
Public perception is that we have a government that has had little interest in the people of this country. People are poorer. Compared to other countries, the UK is uncompetitive & failing in too many areas.
People are angry. Not enough is being done as people are losing their life savings. This has been so poorly managed. Wealth is being transferred to banks.
Bumper profits have been announced by some companies. This is not good or responsible corporate citizenship. There should be a tax on benefiting from the suffering of others. How can we call ourselves human and humane if we perpetuate unethical behaviour and we don't speak out about it?
Forcing interest rates to these ridiculous levels is short sighted in any event. It will force the UK into a massive recession which will ultimately harm corporates & the wealthy. It discourages anyone investing significantly in the UK.
Why was the solution to increase costs via interest rates to manage inflation rather than bring in cheaper imports to force prices down? We live in a global competitive world, but we are using old measures to deal with statistics created by a patriarchal hierarchical system.
If the point is to reduce the labour market, aren't there more direct measures rather than interest rates? Interest rates are about slowing things down & causing pain. It's a choice who is impacted by economic measures.
A fairer way would have been taxes strategically raised in certain areas or a voluntary tax is paid by the wealthy and those businesses who have profited in good times and bad.
We need creative out of the box measures. The attack on the arts is another misguided politically poor decision, but more on that another time.
If you are struggling with interest rates & the cost of living, the only real option seems to be to vote against a government which is failing.
Banks are not making it easy to:
- switch to interest only
- not be penalised by temporarily going variable to ride out the high rates
- offeeing competitive deals - most deals are at 2 years or 5 years - no longer 1 year.
Instead, they are leading with notices that your home may be repossessed.
Britain is at breaking point and ineffective leadership has been at the heart of it. It will ultimately result in British businesses & people falling behind the rest of the world.
We need to look at the big picture and sadly high interest rates have been used in the worst possible way which will cause the least desirable outcomes for all of us.
Read:
- Inflation falls to 7.9% in bigger than expected drop
- There’s only one way to tackle Britain’s mortgage meltdown – get the banks to cough up
- Bank profits poised to top £40 billion while UK economy struggles
- Mortgage cost rises: how other countries compare with the UK
- Inflation is causing real pain. But raising interest rates will make it worse
