Assorted Links (18 Jan 2010) - Focus on Interest Rates

1/ BBC news video - UK interest rates could stay low for five years - One of the UK’s best known economists, Roger Bootle, predicts that interest rates will stay below 1% for the next five years

2/ Telegraph - Economists question success of Bank of England’s £200bn money-printing plan - Economists have cast doubt on whether the Bank of England’s £200bn quantitative easing (QE) programme is working

3/ Telegraph - Why the Bank of England will raise interest rates as deflationary threat melts away - despite massive amounts of Quantitative Easing (QE) in both the US and UK. It is surely only a matter of time before short-term rates follow suit. Or so you would assume

4/ Guardian - Too dangerous to raise interest rates yet - Setting interest rates is a dangerous game - and one that could choke off recovery

5/ The Times - Profile of Willem Buiter - Maverick laughs all the way to the bank - More booms and busts lie in wait, economist Willem Buiter predicts.