The winners and losers of quantitative easing
The Greens want NZ to print more money, on their orders. Labour wants the Reserve Bank to print more money – but on its own initiative under new targets they will set. So who are the wnners and losers from quantitative easing. The Telegraph reports:
Saga, the pensioner lobby group, has claimed that QE has contributed to a 9pc drop in real incomes among the over-50s since early 2008. And the Bank has conceded that the beneficiaries of QE have been the investor classes while those relying on income have suffered
So the victims of QE are pensioners and employees basically. So much for the left standing up for the working class!
So who does well out of QE?
Last year saw a resurgence of some of the biggest and best-known hedge funds in the world, according to the latest figures collected by HSBC.
Crispin Odey, the boss of Odey Asset Management, generated 26.6pc returns at the end of November, turning his flagship fund around from a heavy loss of 21pc in 2011. Lansdowne Partners, the London-based fund that correctly forecast the banking crisis in 2007, made 16pc on its $6bn equity diversified fund and 14.8pc on its global financial fund.
So QE is great for hedge funds. The currency speculators will also have a field day from speculating on exactly how many new dollars a left Government would print.
But how about aspiring home owners? Labour tells us they want more affordable housing.
The Bank has pumped £375bn of money into the economy since the start of its QE programme in 2009, while central banks in America and Japan have unleashed hundreds of billions of dollars in a radical global bid to jump-start the economy. The effect has been to boost the price of assets, from equities to houses, and reduce gilt yields, according to analysis by the Bank.
As someone who already owns a home and has a few equities, I could do very well out of QE. But couples saving for their first home are likely to get clobbered as their income will be devalued, and house prices will increase.