Help to Buy 'mistaken' and 'dysfunctional' says Posen

antrobus

grizzly1911 wrote: »

....."The idea of pumping up credit for middle to upper-middle class people to spend more on housing, when people have already spent too much on housing, is dysfunctional," Mr Posen told BBC Radio 5 live's Wake Up to Money programme.....

Come to think of it, the idea of pumping up credit for, oh, almost everybody, to spend on whatever, by means of quantitative easing, when people have already taken on too much credit, also seems pretty 'dysfunctional'.

And yet Mr Posen seems to have been quite keen on doing just that.
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2011/sep/13/bank-england-adam-posen-quantitative-easing

Thrugelmir

wotsthat wrote: »

If he'd just mentioned that he thought bank regulation should be tougher and housing policy should be separated from mortgage policy he'd be taking to himself.

Vickers report makes the long term future of banking very clear.

Current state of RBS makes imposition very difficult.

Graham_Devon

wotsthat wrote: »

If you're an economist your chance of air time increases significantly if you have something controversial to say about Help to Buy.

Why would that be then?