Letters to the Editor – 11/11 – Interest rates, House building, Best of Twitter
Interest rates
[Re: The UK’s hawks are right – but so are the Eurozone’s doves, Friday]
Interest rates at 2.5 per cent would restore real returns to those with savings and pensions. At the same time, it would kill the corrosively damaging house price bubble – itself the product of supply rationing by the state, through the arcane UK planning laws. The government should actually have an incentive to see interest rate rises over the next 12 months. An appreciating currency could reduce inflation rates, while pensioners would find themselves significantly better off – and vote accordingly in the next general election.
Name withheld
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House building
[Re: There is sadly mass support for nationalisation and price controls, Tuesday]
Lots of people blame capitalism for our woes. But try imagining a world without it. How good would our politicians be at managing innovation? What sort of cars would we drive? Would we have mobile phones at all? What clothes would we be wearing; what would restaurants be like; where would medical innovation come from; would supermarkets stock the products we want? It’s fashionable to castigate private companies for being motivated by profit. But chasing profits prompts companies to give us what we want.
Richard Morgan
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BEST OF TWITTER
Unimpressed by the French government’s reforms, S&P cuts France’s credit rating.
@OpenEurope
There has never been a country that burned its currency and achieved economic prosperity.
@KeithMcCullogh
UK has unemployment and cost of living crisis. Trying to address latter at cost to former is unhelpful.
@tomashirstmoney
So much for UK economic rebalancing: exports of goods in the third quarter decreased by 3.5 per cent.
@notayesmansecon