UK debt crisis and the onward march of neoliberalism | Letters

Quantitative easing allowed the wealthy to get out of cash and into assets, writes Martin London; the provisionally passed Ceta deal is TTIP by the back door, says John Airs. Plus letters by David Dodd and Paul Nicolson

The debt crisis Larry Elliott predicts (Borrowed time: Threadneedle Street is right to fear a bubble, 19 September), is the result of our failure to resolve the financial crisis of 2008. The credit crunch demonstrated that western economies were living beyond their means and that there was too much money and too much debt in the system. The required solution was for creditors to give up a considerable portion of their wealth, and return living space to debtors. Significant austerity was unavoidable.

Governments chose quantitative easing instead, which allowed the wealthy to get out of cash and into assets, retaining or regaining any loss caused by the crash. The rest of us had to bear the brunt of austerity: cuts in benefits, the erosion of full-time jobs, the rise of the gig economy and increases in rents. Additional debt, funded by the liquidity of quantitative easing, enabled millions temporarily to retain a semblance of normal living: but the unequal distribution of wealth has not gone away.

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