'GBP' Erased, Is this common knowledge in the UK? | Telegraph | 12 Jan 2009
Reform plan raises fears of Bank secrecy he Government is set to throw out the 165-year old law that obliges the Bank to publish a weekly account of its balance sheet - a move that will allow it theoretically to embark covertly on so-called quantitative easing. The Banking Bill, which is currently passing through Parliament, abolishes a key section of the law laid down by Robert Peel's Government in 1844 which originally granted the Bank the sole right to print UK money. The ostensible reason for the reform, which means the Bank will not have to print details of its own accounts and the amount of notes and coins flowing through the UK economy, is to allow the Bank more power to overhaul troubled financial institutions in the future, under its Special Resolution Authority. ... The Bank said it will still publish details of its balance sheet, but, significantly, the data - the main indicator of the extent of quantitative easing - will not be presented until more than a month has elapsed. For instance, under the new terms of the law, if the Bank were to have embarked on a policy of quantitative easing last month, the figures on this would not be published until the end of this month.
he Government is set to throw out the 165-year old law that obliges the Bank to publish a weekly account of its balance sheet - a move that will allow it theoretically to embark covertly on so-called quantitative easing. The Banking Bill, which is currently passing through Parliament, abolishes a key section of the law laid down by Robert Peel's Government in 1844 which originally granted the Bank the sole right to print UK money.
The ostensible reason for the reform, which means the Bank will not have to print details of its own accounts and the amount of notes and coins flowing through the UK economy, is to allow the Bank more power to overhaul troubled financial institutions in the future, under its Special Resolution Authority. ...
The Bank said it will still publish details of its balance sheet, but, significantly, the data - the main indicator of the extent of quantitative easing - will not be presented until more than a month has elapsed. For instance, under the new terms of the law, if the Bank were to have embarked on a policy of quantitative easing last month, the figures on this would not be published until the end of this month.
This is like the suspension of M3 statistics by the US Fed in 2006. Most economists teach a theoretical framework that has been shown to be fundamentally useless. -- James K. Galbraith
