Mr Bean

‘Stop moaning, start spending!’ It’s a cry worthy of Gok Wan. In fact, it was uttered by Charlie Bean, deputy governor of the Bank of England.

The Telegraph has a front page splash on the Bank’s admission that low interest rates are part of a strategy to encourage greater economic activity. The plan insisted that savers spend funds that are yielding nothing. Savers, Mr Bean sensitively put it, cannot expect to live off their nest-eggs when times are bad. Spend now and interest rates will improve in the future, or so the thinking goes.

Douglas Carswell and John Redwood both point out the obvious flaws in this aspect of the bank’s monetary strategy. The way out of this is recapitalisation, not more imprudence.