Interest rates, the bluntest of blunt instruments, are supposed to control inflation. As inflation is not going down, neither have they. It looks as though it might go up again, as, although other things are, not cheaper, but not going up in price so quickly, food is. One person’s inflation is, of course, another’s ‘I can’t believe how expensive everything is these days’ and the notional basket of goods, apparently frequently reviewed by those who love a statistic, is subjective at best. The price of a Big Mac is something I haven’t considered for years but, well, look at the queue outside the drive-in on a Saturday lunchtime and you can see how it may affect many another’s notional basket. So if things keep on getting more expensive at a higher rate, in theory interest rates should go up again so that we can’t afford them and the ‘rules’ of demand an supply bring prices down again. My bet is that they will stay still at worst – or the much-dreamt-of, election-saving economic growth will disappear still further over Keir’s horizon.
Should Financial Education be as important as Sex Education?
We’ve talked before about the ‘Hotel des Parents’, where many are having stay well into their thirties, until incomes finally catch up with house prices and they can step onto the ladder and become first-time buyers.
