Get set for another debt binge as real interest rates fall

Despite the fuss about rising interest rates, they’re falling in real terms. That will blow up a wild bubble, says Matthew Lynn.

Andrew Bailey, Governor of the Bank of England
Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey: don’t be fooled by what he says
(Image credit: © Frank Augstein - WPA Pool/Getty Images)

It says something about how we have acclimatised to interest rates at 300-year lows that the move by the Bank of England to put rates up to a whole one percentage point was treated as a shock. On one level, of course it is – it is the highest rate we have seen since the dramatic cuts that followed the financial crash of 2008/09.

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Matthew Lynn

Matthew Lynn is a columnist for Bloomberg, and writes weekly commentary syndicated in papers such as the Daily Telegraph, Die Welt, the Sydney Morning Herald, the South China Morning Post and the Miami Herald. He is also an associate editor of Spectator Business, and a regular contributor to The Spectator. Before that, he worked for the business section of the Sunday Times for ten years. 

He has written books on finance and financial topics, including Bust: Greece, The Euro and The Sovereign Debt Crisis and The Long Depression: The Slump of 2008 to 2031. Matthew is also the author of the Death Force series of military thrillers and the founder of Lume Books, an independent publisher.