According to a Guardian report, the Bank of England's quantitative easing experiment has been a failure. Since 2008, the Bank has created £325,000,000,000 of funds to buy UK government bonds, and today it owns about one third of all traded government debt. Supporters point to the fact that QE has prevented steep falls in equity and asset prices. However, most of the gains from this go to the top 10% of society. In the initial period after the crisis, borrowers, and mortgagees benefited at the expense of savers (mainly the over 50s). However, borrowing rates have since crept up and inflation has affected all sectors of society, particularly pensioners. Has QE resulted in economic growth? Doubtful. Has QE redistributed wealth within society. Most definitely! Banks, the wealthy and borrowers have benefited at the expense of the prudent, savers, the elderly, and the poor.
