The way the present interest rates are going, I'm sure the fragrant Winchester Whisperer is correct when she says we are heading into ZIRP territory ( that's Zero Interest Rate something or other)
I had quipped I was after TWERP ( Take WhatEver Rate Possible) because actually getting the loan is going to be harder than arguing about a percentage point here or there.
Andreas Whittam Smith is not a journalist I like. Rather like Richard Ingrams, he strikes me as rather too prurient and ascetic to appeal to my somewhat less strict tastes.
He does, however, have a very good article in the Independent which, I think, sums up the position well.
A friend of mine was moaning the other day that a year ago he had done everything right - paid off debt, got rid of whatever he could, gone into cash and put it on deposit. Now, he says, because of the way interest rates are going, he doesn't have enough income to live on. The only way for him to earn is to take risks and that's quite scary in this market. OK he can live for several years without worrying too much - but by then his firepower will be eroded.
Other anecdotal evidence is worth mentioning. In the bank branch I frequent one of the tellers told me that especially cafes and small shops had reduced dramatically their pay ins - some cafes in particular had stopped paying in at all.
And being December, surely all the restaurants are full of Christmas Lunch diners? Not a bit of it. A friend and I were in one of the more popular places in central Glasgow yesterday for lunch - along with just 4 other people.
Nobodies getting rich on that.
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