"I promise to pay the bearer..."

I suppose there was a time when those words, which appear on every English bank note, could be counted on but goodness knows how long ago that was.  It was such a simple concept; one deposited gold at the bank - say, £100-worth - and the bank would give one notes in exchange.  Much easier to carry around, less obvious to ne'er-do-wells, less likely to be lost in total.

Things have become so much more sophisticated since those days.  Indeed, they have become more sophisticated since the banking industry and I parted company back in 1985 and I understand very little of what I see in the financial news these days.  Take quantative easing.

QE involved the Bank of England pumping close of £400 billion into the economy, by which I mean they printed rather more than a shed-load of money and somehow eased it into circulation.  I gather the idea was that banks would lend more to businesses looking to expand and to private individuals to buy capital goods.

Excuse me?  Isn't this where we came in?

Now there are calls for the B of E to print more money for another dose of QE - on the basis that it didn't work last time.

Somehow I just can't get my head round this.

~~~~~

What I do understand is that the Old Bat and I together with three other couples are going out for a meal this evening.  We are going to try the newish restaurant in this building, Stanmer House and I am looking forward to the evening immensely.