I went to a debate at Edinburgh’s Heriot Watt University this week. It asked whether quantitative easing had been a mistake or not. A few of my favourite people were speaking – Scotland’s investment trust guru Robin Angus, The Scotsman’s one-time executive editor Bill Jamieson, bear market expert Russell Napier and a new entry to my list, Heriot Watt academic David Cobham.
Most debates on QE are crushingly boring. This wasn’t, largely because once you had dissected the arguments there was very little disagreement. There was argument about how long it should have gone on for and minor fisticuffs about when the inflation it has made inevitable will turn up.
But everyone, even the inflation phobic gold bug of the group (Robin), agreed that it was a perfectly good idea in the beginning – something had to “stabilise the patient”. The huge deleveraging on the part of the banking sectors both in the UK and the US meant that if their central banks had not stepped in there would have been a massive deflationary shock followed by thoroughly unpleasant social consequences.