A weaker global growth outlook and renewed falls in commodity prices could keep interest rates on hold until at least the end of 2016, the Bank of England has signalled.  Bank policymakers kept interest rates at a record low in November, as policymakers voted 8-1 in favour of maintaining Bank Rate at 0.5pc, with Ian McCafferty, an external policymaker, the only dissenter.  Low rates will lead to increasing pension deficits, putting companies solvency at risk. When it comes to it, to save the corporates, government will put through policies to to allow funds to default on their pension obligations. So ZIRP and QE may lead to your pension being hammered...How is it that I, an indifferently-educated prole in flyover country USA, have bested the esteemed DT economic correspondents 100% of the time in predicting the actions of the Fed, BoE, etc.? Could it perchance be due to the fact the hapless DT reporters have become stenographers for the banksters, whereas any thinking person can see exactly what game is being played here?...it is important to note that even in the Great Depression interest rates were never lowered to this absurd level, in effect having been negative for 7 years; that is what shows that in reality we are now in a much greater Depression than the so-called Great Depression, and other than tinker around the edges (actually making things worse) they have no idea what to do to address the problems they have now created....Central banks are the Oligopoly's chief instruments of plunder against the 99%. The banksters have no more efficient means of larceny at their disposal than ZIRP (soon to be NIRP) and QE-to-Infinity. Hence these policies will be maintained until some exogenous factor, i.e. "investors" balking at buying debt that is going to be printed away, forces the hand of the ECB, Fed, BoE, etc., despite the incessant jawboning to the contrary by Draghi, Yellen, Carney and their ilk, or the corporatist media.

Many years ago when Alan Greenspan first proposed using monetary policy to control economies, the critics said this was far too broad a brush.  After the dot.com crash Alan Greenspan loosened monetary policy to get the economy going again. The broad brush effect stoked a housing boom.

When he tightened interest rates, to cool down the economy, the broad brush effect burst the housing bubble. The teaser rate mortgages unfortunately introduced enough of a delay so that cause and effect were too far apart to see the consequences of interest rate rises as they were occurring.

The end result 2008.  With this total failure of monetary policy to control an economy and a clear demonstration of the broad brush effect behind us, everyone decided to use the same idea after 2008.

Interest rates are at rock bottom around the globe, with trillions of QE pumped into the global economy.  The broad brush effect has blown bubbles everywhere. 

The underlying problem is that the global monetary system has failed with too much debt in existence.

The current monetary system has the following characteristics:

1) It is debt based, new money can only be created from new debt

2) It uses compound interest

Compound interest is an exponential function that, without prudent lending, will run away to infinity at some point.  When money creation lies with banks, there is always the over-whelming desire to increase profits by lending out more than would be prudent (their profit comes from the interest received).  The temptation of jam today, makes borrowers forget about the penury tomorrow.

The system relies on prudent lending by bankers who are purveyors of the debt products, e.g. loans, mortgages, etc ...

I think it's high time for a real change in our approach to economic management. All the economic science seems to have failed, or rather to have been subverted by politicians. So let's go back, really a very long way back, to a different approach which might be better understood by the public. I suggest that on the summer solstice we sacrifice several bankers at Stonehenge, in order to placate the financial gods. We could throw in some selected politicians (make your own suggestions) to seek the god's favor. It might not work (what does?) but we might feel better.  Of course a massive recession is planned, it will be a depression of mega proportions but it won't be any accident either. Just like all these wars and occupation forces scattered all over the world by the USA Obama regime. They have bases in over 180 countries and mostly not for any peaceful purpose.   The LONDON based Rothschilds need another world war to seal their United Nations communist contract of world dominance. The recent incidents in the South China Sea around the Spratleys isn't a small tiff. The false flag Gulf of Tonkin incident that started the Vien Nam war was very similar and Bob McNamara made sure that war kicked off. Look at who made all the money?...This one half percent interest rate has been going on for far, far too long.  When the rates are raised, the economies probably will not be sufficiently robust to cope with the the increase. It should have happened at least a couple of years ago. Yes there would have been hardship, but the growth would have been sufficient to overcome that.  It is not the central banks that are responsible, but the "Fuhrers", the government dictating to the so-called "independent" banks.  For them market forces are an anathema, not to be allowed, just like the communists prohibited free enterprise.  Anybody involved in this, that is parliamentarians voting for their particular party to support the policies being maintained, should be stripped of their benefits and sacked for gross negligence/incompetence.

Denmark, Norway and Finland tell citizens not to travel to Sharm el-Sheikh

The European Commission, yesterday, proposed measures to improve the way the Eurozone manages its economy in the short term, as part of a wide scale plan to integrate the Monetary Union, and to avoid a future crisis, respectively.  The officials in Brussels want a unification of the representation of states in the Eurozone in the IMF, so that, by 2025, the region will be represented by "one voice" within the IMF.  Valdis Dombrovskis, the vice-president of the European Commission, said: "Our voice in the IMF does not reflect the economic weight of the Eurozone. The member states of the region are spread out across six divisions, and in the case of the EU - across seven. These divisions matter, in order for the countries to agree on a common stance within the same precinct. If the Eurozone were talking using one voice within the IMF, that would better reflect the economic and financial weight of the Eurozone in the world's economy".   The European Commission is proposing for the president of the Eurogroup (the finance ministers in the Eurozone), Jeroen Dijsselbloem, to become the sole representative of the Eurozone on the Board of Directors of the IMF.

The Chinese economy has continued to struggle despite repeated efforts to stimulate activity, according to official data, raising the prospect of further measures from Beijing if the country is to reach its growth targets.  China's enormous manufacturing sector surprisingly contracted for the third consecutive month in October, while its services sector - the economy's growth engine - expanded at the slowest rate since 2008's financial crisis.  The figures raise new fears that growth in the world's second-biggest economy could fall below 7pc this year, after official data last month showed expansion of 6.9pc in the year to September. Weak demand in China has already had a huge effect on the world economy, potentially delaying interest rate rises and hitting commodity prices.  The country's central bank has repeatedly cut bank lending requirements in an attempt to boost growth and ward off deflation, but economists suggested the new figures could herald further measures. "As deflation risks intensify, a further RRR cut [the reserves a bank must hold against lending] before end of this year is still possible," economists at ANZ Bank said. Sunday's PMI figures from China's National Bureau of Statistics gave a reading of 49.8 for the country's manufacturing sector, below the 50 mark that separates contraction from expansion for the third month in a row. Markets had widely expected a rebound, with expectations set at 50..."Because of the recent weak recovery in the global economy and downward pressure in the domestic economy, manufacturers still face a severe import and export situation," Zhao Qinghe, a senior statistician at the NBS, said.  Meanwhile, the services sector, which has helped make up for disappointing factory output, saw its slowest growth for seven years. The non-manufacturing PMI fell from 53.4 in September to 53.1. China's official figures for economic growth, which are widely believed to over-estimate the true level, fell to 6.9pc in the third quarter of the year, the lowest pace of expansion since early 2009. This compares to a rough target of 7pc set by Beijing.

Note that all the "disadvantages" of Brexit are expressed in terms of financial or trading loss. Remember also that the EU itself funds many of the "independent" think tanks and lobby groups that promote continued EU membership.  Never forget that all the financial figures are deliberately skewed to support the EU. Never forget either that, for people like Osborne and Cameron, any financial or trading benefit is irrelevant to the decision they want YOU to make: for them, and many of the others with the same Common Purpose, a United Europe is a political and philosophical dream that will not be deflected or defeated by anything approaching financial or political reality.  If economic advantage or disadvantage had had anything to do with it, Britain would NEVER have declared war on Germany, NEVER have attempted to defend the Falkland Islanders. At the end of the day, it's NOT about any short or medium-term financial benefit. It's about Britain's right to choose its own lawmakers – those who govern our lives and control our borders. It boils down to a parliament in London that we can kick out if we think they are getting it wrong – or a European consortium stretching from Turkey to Portugal, whose own interests, and whose views of our own relevance to them will result in laws that govern us. Permanently.  For me, it's clear: I'm not British but I want British people to decide who runs Britain, whether I personally like the result or not...Could? Might? May? They tried this when UK refused to join the Euro. Now America too, is threatening not to negotiate a single trade deal with the UK. The EU have not secured a trade deal with the USA in the forty years we have been an EU member. Now the EU are bending every rule in the book at the expense of  EU citizens, because it is being blackmailed to ignore existing food standards, by the USA in order to get a deal. We are the 5th largest economy in the world. According to the World bank Britain has jumped ahead of the USA, Germany, France and Italy to be the no.1 country of G7 members, which the world want to do business with. It's all a bluff, by vested interests. If it's so good in the EU why did Norway refuse to join twice, and they are 23rd (nominal) and 45th (PPP).