This week Billy Bragg was member of the Question Time Panel.
He came up with a statistic and a proposal for spending the £75 Billion of QE2.
His statistic was that it amounts to about £4000 per person/household.
His proposal was that each household should receive that amount to spend as they choose, thereby ensuring that the money is spent in the local economy rather than locked up in UK Banks.
Unsurprisingly his proposal seemed pretty popular with the audience.
Baroness Warsi demonstrated how the economy needs two levers, unfortunately she appeared to be miming the part of a bar maid on East Enders. Apparently QE2 is OK because it has been introduced by George Osborne whom we can trust rather Gordon Brown whom we couldn't.
I have mentioned in this blog that some years ago I proposed this idea when I worked for a Government Task Force in Birmingham, it was a serious proposal, as I am sure Billy Bragg's was, and after the laughter of my colleagues had subsided the Head of the Task Force Initiative appeared to give the idea some serious consideration before deciding it was too risky.
But what is the risk? and is it less of a risk than giving the money to the Bankers?
My experience of Bankers is not an especially good one.
Some years ago I had the privilege of spending a semester at an American College in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Every day I walked to 'school' through Harvard Yard to Brattle Street where the Episcopal Divinity School was located.
Before we left the Pound was in free fall against the dollar and so I took advice from a friend who was a banker, he put me in touch with an expert of foreign exchange, well he said things won't get worse than they are, in fact they can only improve, so hold on to your sterling just now and exchange it when you are close to leaving.
The pound dropped even further and when I did exchange my money I was roughly 10 cents in the pound worse off, receiving a dollar for every pound.
So with my much reduced capital which had to last me and my family, six of us in total, for six months in America, I opened an account at a Bank in Harvard Square and deposited my cheque.
Once our travel money had evaporated and the cheque had cleared I went to the Bank and tried to cash a cheque.
There is no money in this account, I was told by the teller. Clearly she was not a fortune teller in fact I had no fortune, it had disappeared.
But, I said, I have only just deposited a cheque, not in this bank you haven't, but I deposited it with you I exclaimed, panic rising in my voice.
I've never seen you before, she said flatly.
At the interview with the manager of the bank, thankfully I had kept the receipt, I shared the view that I thought that in America people came in off the street and robbed the bank, not the other way round.
I look forward to Billy Bragg turning his idea into a song about who are the bank robbers and who are the robbed.
I just hope that Mervyn King keeps the receipt.
He came up with a statistic and a proposal for spending the £75 Billion of QE2.
His statistic was that it amounts to about £4000 per person/household.
His proposal was that each household should receive that amount to spend as they choose, thereby ensuring that the money is spent in the local economy rather than locked up in UK Banks.
Unsurprisingly his proposal seemed pretty popular with the audience.
Baroness Warsi demonstrated how the economy needs two levers, unfortunately she appeared to be miming the part of a bar maid on East Enders. Apparently QE2 is OK because it has been introduced by George Osborne whom we can trust rather Gordon Brown whom we couldn't.
I have mentioned in this blog that some years ago I proposed this idea when I worked for a Government Task Force in Birmingham, it was a serious proposal, as I am sure Billy Bragg's was, and after the laughter of my colleagues had subsided the Head of the Task Force Initiative appeared to give the idea some serious consideration before deciding it was too risky.
But what is the risk? and is it less of a risk than giving the money to the Bankers?
My experience of Bankers is not an especially good one.
Some years ago I had the privilege of spending a semester at an American College in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Every day I walked to 'school' through Harvard Yard to Brattle Street where the Episcopal Divinity School was located.
Before we left the Pound was in free fall against the dollar and so I took advice from a friend who was a banker, he put me in touch with an expert of foreign exchange, well he said things won't get worse than they are, in fact they can only improve, so hold on to your sterling just now and exchange it when you are close to leaving.
The pound dropped even further and when I did exchange my money I was roughly 10 cents in the pound worse off, receiving a dollar for every pound.
So with my much reduced capital which had to last me and my family, six of us in total, for six months in America, I opened an account at a Bank in Harvard Square and deposited my cheque.
Once our travel money had evaporated and the cheque had cleared I went to the Bank and tried to cash a cheque.
There is no money in this account, I was told by the teller. Clearly she was not a fortune teller in fact I had no fortune, it had disappeared.
But, I said, I have only just deposited a cheque, not in this bank you haven't, but I deposited it with you I exclaimed, panic rising in my voice.
I've never seen you before, she said flatly.
At the interview with the manager of the bank, thankfully I had kept the receipt, I shared the view that I thought that in America people came in off the street and robbed the bank, not the other way round.
I look forward to Billy Bragg turning his idea into a song about who are the bank robbers and who are the robbed.
I just hope that Mervyn King keeps the receipt.
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