Don't be an idiot Will,

A rate cut would demolish the pound and only lead to more inflation and mayhem.

Austin Tassletine, Bristol, UK

The pressure on inflation at the moment is caused almost entirely by the cost of energy.. especially oil.

High Interest Rates do not affect this in the slightest, and indeed actually give even further inflationary pressures.. the BoE appears to be shooting itself in the foot.

It seems to be stuck in the mid 20th Century and should be taking more notice of "why" there is high inflation, instead of relying on traditional methods to fight the non traditional reasons.

Paul, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

I thought the whole purpose of the Bank of England was to control inflation. That is what they should focus on first.

Bob, Bristol,

This whole mess has been caused by a severe lack of prudence by both borrowers and lenders. Cutting interest rates will only delay the inevitable - and prolong the pain. We're gonna have a recession, and the sooner we get it over and done with the better.

Marko, Belfast, La La Land

So cutting interest rates is now the panacea to solve our problems on this side of the pond as well. Our problems are not going to go away until inflation is brought under control and we stop spending beyond our means. Unfortunately it will mean some pain but then excesses usually do bring that on.

Trevor Retsof, Birmingham, UK

The R word is on the doorstep and is coming to a community like yours unless the BofE get their act together FAST and cut rates by at least 2%. When Corporate profits slump, investment in business dries up, lay offs increase and unemployment spirals, stock market dives, pensions dive, property market slumps. Is this what the 'don't cut interest rates' crowd want?

Will, Lincoln, UK

wasnt there an article in the times about how interest rates should rise a few days ago?

joseph, london,

From a laymans perspective it simply appears that the banks have simply lent too money. The banks goal has been to lend as much money as possible to anyone who wants it, boosting mortgage ratios to historic highs of 5x or 6x. It has been assumed that interest rates are going to remain at the historic lows. How shortsighted was this? The government has allowed bankers, whose only vision is the size of their year end bonus, to steer the UK economy into a storm. The prudent amongst us are now going to pay for this irresponsible lending and borrowing. Time to move my savings out of Sterling.

k jirackova, Newcastle, Tyne and Wear

Inflation is always and everywhere the enemy and it is rising - until inflation begins to decline there is no scope for a cut in the interest rate.

Arnold Ward, Weybridge, Surrey, UK

EMPLOYMENT- A decrease in employment and / or increase in unemployment is the key indicator that the economy is going into reverse. Money must go around in a circle for an economy to function ie confidence to invest. The current credit crunch, spurned by the sub-prime market in the USA, has dented confidence in banks lending to each other. Subsequent lower mortgage approvals slow the UK housing market. Price falls of housing will affect Buy2let and Repo's Unemployment will increase due to a fall in activity in the UK's favorite asset, property / DIY. Watch the January employment figures. A rate cut in February is more likely as recession in the UK will be more evident after XMAS. Added to this is the accusation that UK politics has reached an all time low, due to sleaze allegations being investigated in to the funding of the UK Labour Party. Debt makes the world go round, but it ain't a bottomless pit. It has to be paid back one way or the other. I think it will be the other. :-(

Politico Bloggs, Swindon,

If my 12 year old son came home drunk one night (god forbid) and he had a raging hangover the next day. I would not help him by giving him lots of water etc. I would let him suffer all day so that the effects of his stupidness would be fresh in his mind when he thought about trying alcohol the next time. We are giving the foolish people their pain killers by cutting interest rates, when they should suffer and not be let off the hook. The government and the BoE haven' a clue what to do. The problem is that the government gave the BoE supposed autonomy but as we ar coming up to an election the gov. are putting pressure of the BoE to maintan votes. I think it's too late anyway. Labour are on the way out.

david, madrid,

The BOE should keep a tight rein on interests. There has to be a correction and its better that we swallowed the bitter pill now, than take short term measures. Lowering interest rates will again kick start the housing market and lead to higher prices and less affordability.

Hamad Lone, London, England

In the past, when banks \ investors made bad investments, they bore the pain of their losses. Now when those same banks \ investors make more mistakes, central banks (e.g Federal Reserve) rush to cut interest rates or even rush to lend them money at rates below LIBOR - they call it injecting liquidity into the system. No lessons will be learnt. Following the 1997-8 crisis interest rates were slashed, which created the dot com bubble, which burst in 2000-1. So interest rates were cut (in the US to a foolish 1%) and that created the housing bubble, which has now burst. Now a new bubble in oil, gold and commodities is being created through
cheaper money.

Zoe Craven, Glasgow, UK

When will the UK ever wake up and realise that the cheap credit inflationary boom fed by housing market bubble is similar to hard drugs..... The general public are going to face a period of 'cold turkey'. Dropping interest rates would only have the effect of prolonging the eventual decline in growth. Infact publishing articles like does not help the situation either.

Arthur, Penzance, UK

Mr Minford is calling for a 0.75% cut in rates and Mr Congdon is calling for a 0.5 % cut in rates. Doubtless some other biased expert is calling for a 0.25% cut.
Mr Singlehurst, (that is me,) is calling for rates to stay the same.
Some pain now will avoid greater pain tomorrow.
I hope the MPC have some courage.This is needed right now.

nic, royan, france

Interest rates aren't high enough! RPI is nearly 5% and my girlfriend ( a nurse ) just got a 1.9% pay rise, quite a large pay cut in real terms. Apparently the food bill for the average family is up £750 per year, diesel for my car is up 15% in just a few months, inflation is setting in and this must be avoided at all costs. I want to see interest rates rise to get inflation back in line. The credit markets are frozen because of over zealous lending by financial institutions, it was obvious house prices were in a bubble and grossly overvalued and yet banks kept throwing money at people to buy them. This is not a reason to bail them out with base rate cuts. We have to accept that such large booms are always followed by bust and take the medicine. It will bring a lot of good to a lot of people - those that were priced out of the housing market for example.

Richard, Poole, UK

Even if the MPC looses the plot and reduces the base rate, there is no obligation to pass it on borrowers, it will be the depositors who get hit first.

I also disagree with the premise that a reduction in interest rates will, "get the banking system working". This is presumably a reference to the "credit crunch", which has happened because banks are not as willing to lend money willy-nilly. Why should the current air of well-justified caution change if the interest rates are reduced?

Inflation is the enemy. If the cost of living inflation had been rising at the rate of house price inflation, then I doubt whether there would be many people calling for a decrease in interest rates.

It's time to reign in the credit, encourage saving and keep inflation at the MPC target of 2%, which it has failed to do for the last two years.

Dick Parsons, Stevenage,

So the banks what a lower lending rate, yet they are pushing up lending for the public, another point unnecessary recession, i think we need it, people have taken out more than what they can afford and now lower the rates what happens next time? keep lowering the rates untill it hit zero and the amount of debt has gone thur the roof? keep house prices higher people taking out 20x or greater.

What signal are these guys sending out oh the boe will save us, the longer house prices rise the worse it will be for our economy in the long run, surely they must see this.
Are they going to pay wages to match house prices? or will companies just shift to other cheaper countries and employment drops like a ton of bricks.

mike, london,

A lot of you dont understand econmonics. If a cut in rates leads to loss of control of inflation expect to loose your life over it. A bit of pain now will do no one any harm. If growth drops 1% it will be good for the economy and give it some breathing space. Bankers are simply putting pressure for rate cuts so that they can collect nice bonuses at year end. The days of big bonuses are over.

des, Birmingham, UK

Mr Minford seems to be pro-market, so I assume that includes helping financial markets. I am not sure what part of the 1980s he was advising the Tories, but was it during the period when Thatcher had a break up with Lawson because of the exchange rate and interest rates?

We then had a surge in inflation. Did Mr Minford have anything to do with that? Living in an ivory tower and writing books that are probably politically motivated does not make one an authority on the global inflationary impact of rising demand in Asia.

There is a debate about the potential impotence of monetary policy when financial markets have been using all these innovations to make their own liquidity. There has been no century of monetarist thought on this and even the market participants are clueless on what they are holding (one of the main problems right now).

Why should the BoE loosen policy when there is nothing certain. Will interest rates cuts make a difference if everyone is still scared?

Raj, London, UK

Rate cut of 0.75%? That is a ridiculous idea. Encouraging banks to flood the market with cheaper money all over again will only make things worse in the long term, and we will be back to another credit crunch in two years time. Rates need to stay static, if not rise, so that the economy can find its feet and return to some sense of normality.

Gordon Brown, after his famous speech in 1997 when he said he would not allow house prices to rise out of control, has presided over the biggest housing boom in modern times. We need a steep correction in house prices, probably 35%, before the economy can begin to grow again. Anything less than that will fail to provide the UK with the wake-up medicine it desperately needs.

Lawrence Wilson, Bristol, UK