Bank of England bonds a sign of trouble

TEXT OF STORY

Renita Jablonski: The Bank of England stepped up efforts today to revive the British economy. It’s buying more bonds worth billions of dollars. Yesterday, the European Central Bank said it would also resort to the same emergency measure. A reminder the global economy isn’t totally in the clear. Stephen Beard from the European Desk in London.

Stephen Beard: The Bank of England has already created $70 billion worth of new money to buy bonds. It now plans an additional $120 billion for the same purpose.

The process aims to pump much needed cash into the economy to force long-term interest rates even lower. Some describe it as a central bank’s last desperate throw. The Fed has been doing it for months, now the European Central Bank says that it’s going to start doing it, too.

Andrew Hilton is with the CSFI think tank. He says stock markets may be booming, but there’s still real trouble in the real economy:

Andrew Hilton: Most economists feel that the economic situation is, at best, bottoming out. But it’s nothing to get excited about — that the problem is continuing, it may even get worse.

Another leading analyst says that the recovery, when it eventually comes, will be extremely anemic. But he says anemia is better than rigor mortis.

In London, this is Stephen Beard for Marketplace.