This appeared in a pro version of the Financial Times today. They asked ChatGPT to write a frank honest letter on behalf of the Bank of England
A frank letter from the Governor of the Bank of England
(Generated by ChatGPT)
Dear Mr Mug-Prole,
In recent years it has become fashionable to issue contrition-free apologies as in Ā« Sorry, not sorry Ā».
Today, I would like to apologise for the Bankās failure to keep on top of monetary policy in recent years and the size of inflation in the UK now as a result. Unfortunately, this means that we might have to now engineer a nasty recession.
I apologise for that, too. Please do not take this personally, itās strictly business for us at the Bank of England and those who really run and own the UK. The truth is that I and my colleagues at the Bank of England have been slow to react.
We should have raised interest rates earlier and faster to offset the effects on Government finances, of all those Covid support payments. In our defence, well Iāll get back to you later.
I have explained to the current Prime Minister that in order to squash rampant wage inflation, we need to create more unemployment, which at 3.8 per cent is frankly far too low for comfort.
Since the Chancellor has already increased taxes and there is a general election due in the next 12-18 months, there is little he can do to slow down an economy that has performed better than anyone had expected last autumn.
Imagine how well the economy might have done if there hadnāt been widespread strikes and extra public holidays. As the governmentās banker I shudder at the thought. We would have looked even further behind what we should have been doing if these events had not given us some excuse.
Many of you will remember that in February 2022 I as the Governor of the Bank of England politely asked workers to exercise restraint in demanding pay rises in order to get through the current inflationary burst more quickly but I was ignored.
Perhaps thatās because, when asked, I was unable to recall my own salary.
The Bank of Englandās Chief Economist then made an unforced error 2 months ago, by admitting the truth in a US podcast: āEveryone is reluctant to accept that they are worse off so prices are pushed up and workers demand pay rises to compensate, and so it goes onā.
He was quite right. But people simply donāt want to listen.
Even though current wage rises are negative in real terms, far too many people are still frittering their recent annual pay rise on a nice little summer outfit from Next, or yet another foreign holiday. This will not do.
Such behaviour is making it harder for the Bank to bring inflation back down to the target of 2% for the UK. Inflation is currently highest in air fares to Europe (up 20 per cent from April to May) and in restaurants/hotels.
Far too many people are having a good time. We at the Bank of England are determined to put a stop to this. As you know, our chief weapon is interest rates.
It is a clumsy tool. Nevertheless, our plan to beat the housing market into submission is progressing well. But more needs to be done.
Last summer, when interest rates were around 1.25 per cent, we quietly abolished the affordability test for mortgages whereby homebuyers had to demonstrate their ability to cope with a 3 per cent rate rise.
The affordability test was, of course, designed to protect banks, not borrowers. I apologise if the media led you to think otherwise.
Anyway, we have now ensured that banks are sturdy enough to cope with a sharp rise in delinquent mortgages while retaining their vital ability to lend to the more productive parts of the economy.
That was Stage One.
We are currently in Stage Two. With mortgages rates now back up to where they were during last autumn when former Prime Minister Liz Truss triggered a run on the Pound, forcing the government to put interest rates up in an attempt to preserve its value, we are at last starting to see fear returning to some consumers.
And not a moment too soon, say I.
Although inflation will drop markedly after July when falls in the energy price guarantee are factored in ā Iām afraid this alone will not be enough to squash pay demands to keep up with the Prole-Joneses, who I believe are off to the Seychelles. Again.
Needless to say, the Bank intends to keep interest rates as high as possible until it is crystal clear that inflation has been squeezed out of the system.
That means we need to keep on with the interest rate rises until inflation gets back to at most half its current rate of
7.1 per cent. Though weād really like to keep on raising interest rates until inflation is back to not much more than Ā¼ of current rates ie 2%.
Alas, this could take longer than you have been led to expect. We hope you understand that it is all for your own good. As former Prime Minister John Major once said: If it isnāt hurting, it isnāt working
We wonāt be asking the banks to engage in widespread repossessions of peopleās houses if they canāt pay their mortgages, although there will be some. I can tell you the banks were really relieved to hear that, because the whole process ties them up for years ā and they rarely get all their money back.
Instead, we have asked them to āextend and pretendā.
This means talking to you about extending the length of your mortgage, maybe only repaying the interest part of the loan or perhaps allowing you to skip loan payments for longer than usual before calling it a bad debt.
Banks will then be able to continue with their dividend payments to shareholders, management bonuses, and the vast majority of borrowers should be able to remain in their homes. Let no one say the Bank of England is heartless.
Iāve told the Chancellor he is not to give any meaningful financial help to those with a mortgage. If he disobeys, we will simply increase interest rates for everyone and all businesses even more to make up for this.
Instead, Iāve suggested that the Prime Minister gives the banks a stern lecture about their duty of care towards customers. Hopefully they will comply. It is always useful to have a scapegoat to blame in order to deflect attention and banks are particularly suitable for this role, and the media will help us blame them, if things go wrong.
Itās not been easy for me, either. The consequences of Covid have made my job much harder.
The large number of skilled workers still unable to return to the workforce because of a long list of ālong Covidā symptoms has made the current labour market extremely tight. These malingerers simply donāt want to go back to work, and are pushing up wage demands because there are so few workers left. (The other main contingent, EU workers, having left the UK labour market due to Brexit.)
We at the Bank of England have privately discussed the need for interest rates to go much higher than strictly necessary in order to break this resistance to going back to work.
Lest you think we are only targeting mortgage-payers, I must add that our higher rates are already having a knock-on effect on rents, which saw an annual rise of 5 per cent in May.
This allows us to restrain the spending of 46 per cent of households.
Credit card debt and any other loans or other types of consumer credit will also cost more. This is how we hope to limit the spending of the 17 per cent in housing associations and other social renters.
Of course, thereās not much we can do to curb the spending of the remaining 37 per cent who own their properties outright, and still have a job, but you canāt have everything.
We have asked banks to be parsimonious in their deposit rates. I think itās the least we can do in the name of fairness to all.
Higher interest rates also increase the cost of borrowing for businesses. We want companies to feel uncertain and hold off from pushing through price rises.
We want workers to feel worried about their jobs and accept that static pay is better than no pay. Weād be thrilled to see the airlines and leisure companies issue profit warnings. Only when we see this kind of uncertainty and weakness that we can start to relax.
Stage Three is the much-needed cut in interest rates that people had hoped would begin before Christmas. Hereās why it could take longer.
Once upon a time, most mortgages were on variable rates, so interest rate changes quickly fed through to the economy a month later.
However, a decade of ultra-low rates meant most borrowers took fixed-rate loans. These have insulated households from the restrictions of higher rates. So mortgage borrowers with fixed rate mortgages carried on blithely walking on air. Now they are starting to look down.
By the end of 2026, almost all households with a mortgage will have been forced to moved to a higher rate as fixes ended and, unless banks extend their terms, are likely to end up with annual mortgage bills that are Ā£2,000 higher on average compared to December 2021.
A large slug of this falls due in 2024, when a general election is likely. But since the government already expects to lose this, I wonāt have to deal with much harassment from Number 10.
Anyway, my job contract doesnāt expire until 2028, so I am quite relaxed. Itāll be a different lot of politicians by then.
I hope you have found this little fireside chat to be helpful, I know I have. There are some things one simply cannot say at a Bank of England press conference.
But if you have found any of it unpalatable, well, Iām sorry.
Lots of love,
The Guvnor
Bank of England
(I slightly edited to explain technical terms etc)