Bonds

Is the BBC following the recommendations from the Blastland and Dilnot report? Let’s use a bit of AI magic and find out

Time for another exercise in mythbusting. It turns out it is very difficult for something that cannot move to fly. Who knew?

There is no risk that interest rates on UK government debt will reach crippling levels. Interest rates are policy variables. Paying interest is a political choice. Betteridge’s law of headlines applies.

Here’s the real reason ‘asset managers’ object to ‘printing money’

The Asset Purchase Facility has landed HM Treasury with a ~£90 billion bill over the next two year. This paper lays out an approach that requires no further vote funding from Parliament, no additional debt interest payments, and restores “postive cash flow” from the APF for the remainder of this Parliament.

Once intra-government transactions are eliminated, QE represents an exchange of gilts (liabilities of the National Loans Fund) for central bank reserves (liabilities of the Bank of England)

The public debt markets add less value to national prosperity than their opportunity costs. A proper cost-benefit analysis would conclude that the market should be terminated.

The government borrows at a price of its choosing. Here’s how.

Since 2018 Russia has had an alternative payment clause in its Eurobond contracts that allows it to pay principal and interest in Roubles

There is no justification for paying public funds on government securities. Welfare payments should be democratically targetted, not market purchasable.