Monetary And Fiscal Policies And Weighing Up How Effective The Coalition Have Been Improving The British Economy

This essay will demonstrate the measures of success that the British Government and Bank of England have delivered for the periods of 2010 and 2011. In order to achieve this outcome it was first necessary to briefly describe some background to how the Bank of England became so involved and how their input has had a direct affect on inflation and interest rates, which are two measurable indicators used in business and economics.

The Global Financial Crisis or 2008 financial crisis is considered by many economists to have been the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. It resulted in the threat of total collapse of large financial institutions, the bailout of banks by national governments, and downturns in stock markets around the world.

The financial crisis from2007 to 2008 is considered the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1920s and destroyed the U.S. economy severely. It led the housing prices fell 31.8%, the unemployment rate rose a peak of 10% in the United States. Especially the subprime market, began defaulting on their mortgage. Housing industry had collapsed. This crisis was not an accident, it caused by varies of factors. The unregulated securitization system, the US government deregulation, poor monetary policies, the irresponsibility of 3 rating agencies, the massed shadow banking system and so on. From my view, the unregulated private label mortgages securitization is the main contribute factor which led the global financial crisis in 2008.

Reduction in interest rate: In March 2009, UK government through Bank of England reduced interest rate from 5.0 % in September 2008 to 0.5 %. Figure 7 below shows UK interest rate level from a decade prior to the crisis period.

One of the most interesting facets of The Great Recession of 2008 is that it didn’t really begin in 2008. The fiscal and monetary policy that prompted what we know now as the Great Recession of 2008 really began in 2006 and 2007. What was happening then and why did it take so long for the nation to feel the recession? The answers to those questions explain a great deal about how the Federal Reserve Bank operates and how the different ideologies of economics affect our nation (Sumner, 2011).

Monetary Policy, in the United States, is the process by which the Federal Reserve controls the money supply to promote economic growth and stability. It is based on the relationship between interest rates of the economy and the total supply of money. The Federal Reserve uses a variety of monetary policy tools to control one or both of these.

Monetary policy consists of specific changes in the money supply to influence interest rates which in return adjusts the level of spending in the economy. The goal of the policy is to achieve and maintain price stability, full employment, and economic growth. The regulation of the money supply and interest rates are controlled by a central bank, such as the Federal Reserve Board in the U.S., in order to control inflation. Monetary policy is only one of the two ways the government can affect the economy. By altering the effective cost of money, the Federal Reserve can ultimately change the amount of money that is spent by consumers and businesses.

Monetary policy uses changes in the quantity of money to alter interest rates, which in turn affect the level of overall spending . “The object of monetary policy is to influence the nation’s economic performance, as measured by inflation”, the employment rate and the gross domestic product, an aggregate measure of economic output. Monetary policy is controlled by

The main cause of this worldwide economic contraction was the credit crunch in 2007/2008. In the United States, mortgage lenders received incentives to sell mortgages, regardless of the income and credit score of the individual receiving the loan. This lead to an influx of loans being sold that were likely to be defaulted on at a later date. These subprime mortgages proved to be very profitable for the mortgage companies; thus, in order to continue selling these mortgages, they consolidated the debt and sold it to financial intermediaries. Therefore, the loans were no longer being financed through the traditional banking model.

Quantitative easing is in limited use when problems are a lack of need, businesses and consumers were not interested in spending during high unemployment times knowing that money is cheaper. Stock markets were advertised more, costs of American exports were lowered it also allowed companies to borrow money at lower interest rates.

Economic policy refers to the actions that governments take in the economic field. In this report, I will be giving an explanation on how fiscal and monetary policies are used by the government to help regulate the economy of the UK. Following that, I will be explaining how supply side economics and policies are also used to regulate the UK economy. I will include examples of these policies to back up my theory. Lastly, I will be explaining how quantitative easing has been used to drag the UK economy out of the doldrums of the 2008 banking crisis.

Monetary policy involves manipulating the interest rate charged by the central bank for lending money to the banking system in an economy, which influences greatly a vast number of macroeconomic variables. In the UK, the government set the policy targets, but the Bank of England and the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) are given authority and freedom to set interest rates, which is formally once every month. Contractionary monetary policy may be used to reduce price inflation by increasing the interest rate. Because banks have to pay more to borrow from the central bank they will increase the interest rates they charge their own customers for loans to recover the increased cost. Banks will also raise interest rates to encourage people to save more in bank deposit accounts so they can reduce their own borrowing from the central bank. As interest rates rise, consumers may save more and borrow less to spend on goods and services. Firms may also reduce the amount of money they borrow to invest in new equipment. A

Monetary policy affects the aggregate demand by altering the supply or cost of money. One of which is the alteration of the rate of interest. By reducing the interest rate, it encourages consumers and businesses to borrow and spend or invest instead of saving their money. As a result, the supply of money increases. When there is more money, it

The credit crunch can be basically described as the increasing costs of borrowing money due to prevailing situations and rising interest rates. The increase in the interest rates resulted in the inability of many people to afford the repayments on mortgages that led them to default. The rising interest rates had huge effects on the subprime market in the United States in which money was lent to probable risky debtors. Credit crunch was not only exacerbated by the increase in interest rates but it was also fueled by over lending by banks that could offer around 125 percent mortgages. In such instances, these banks were left with 25 percent out of pocket because they could only recover 100 percent in cases of defaults and repossessions. Therefore, the main cause of the credit crunch in 2007-2009 was over-optimistic lending by banks without the considerations of recoverability and risks.

After the Global Financial crises of 2008, UK economy was severely affected and had dipped into recession. Thus, this led to a fall in market confidence, lower GDP growth and higher levels of unemployment. In order to boost the economy, expansionary monetary policies were adopted by the Bank of England. Interest Rates were cut to historic low of 0.5%. However, the economy was still not out of recession and conventional monetary policies failed to work even when interest rates were near zero bound. So, the central bank used unconventional monetary tools such as Quantitative Easing i.e. buying government bonds and injecting money into the economy. This policy was accompanied by a rather new policy known as the Forward Guidance in August,