David Barmes
New report: Where are the conditions for the Bank of England’s broken bailout scheme?
2 July, 2020The government and the Bank of England are using a new scheme – the Covid Corporate Financing Facility (CCFF) – to bail out the UK’s largest corporations with no strings attached. As of 24th June, a select list of 63 companies, including some of the country’s biggest polluters, held a total of £18 billion in [...]
Why Covid-19 should make us rethink the concept of inflation
4 May, 2020Despite the Bank of England and the Treasury’s coordinated moves to pump more money into the economy, inflation is unlikely to occur for now. Rather, the current crisis is generating deflationary pressures. Covid-19 shouldn’t prompt worries about inflation but rather a rethink of the concept itself. The Bank of England’s moves to offer forms of [...]
Bank of England provides £7.5 billion in big business bailouts – hidden from public view
16 April, 2020While SMEs struggle to gain access to government-backed loans, large corporations have already been bailed out to the tune of approximately £7.5bn via the Bank of England’s newly created Covid Corporate Financing Facility - and it’s all being hidden from public view. As part of their measures to combat the economic fallout of Covid-19 the [...]
The ultimate magic money tree has been unveiled – don’t let the government tell you otherwise
15 April, 2020Despite the extension of the Ways and Means facility and expanded Quantitative Easing, the Treasury and the Bank of England might still deny that they are engaged in monetary financing and attempt to justify a return to austerity. We can’t let that happen. On 9th April, HM Treasury and the Bank of England jointly announced [...]
Climate culprits retain eligibility for Bank of England’s coronavirus corporate QE expansion
7 April, 2020The Bank of England’s list of eligible bonds for its corporate QE programme still includes the likes of BP, Shell, Total and a range of other carbon-intensive companies. The Bank must stick to its word and immediately exclude high-carbon companies from further asset purchases. Only days before taking the helm as new Bank of England [...]
Now’s the time to stop worshipping the false god of GDP
31 March, 2020We must resist GDP-based arguments which attempt to justify a less stringent public health response to Covid-19. As we emerge from this crisis, returning to a senseless pursuit of endless growth would do more harm than good. A recent study on Covid-19’s economic impact in the UK estimates a 15% hit to GDP. Given our [...]
To help fight Covid-19 the Bank of England must commit to direct monetary financing
27 March, 2020The Bank of England is indirectly financing the Treasury’s spending on the response to Covid-19. We welcome this development, but further transparency is needed. Now is the time for the Bank to commit to direct monetary financing. On the 19th of March, the Bank announced a £200 billion expansion of its Quantitative Easing (QE) programme. [...]
More private debt isn’t the solution, this crisis calls for bold measures
18 March, 2020Coordination between the Treasury and the Bank of England is welcome, but in the midst of a crisis, more private debt is not the answer. The immediate economic response needs to involve targeted measures to protect the most vulnerable, while longer-term interventions should be focused on radically restructuring our economy. In an embattled speech where [...]
Three principles for responding to the Covid-19 economic fallout
11 March, 2020Covid-19’s economic fallout is intensifying. In response, the Bank of England and the Treasury must coordinate to implement targeted measures in line with the following three principles: (i) protecting the most vulnerable; (ii) supporting the green transition; (iii) restructuring rather than reproducing failed economic systems. As the number of Covid-19 cases continues to rise, the [...]