Rates: a complete experiment
Updated on 08 January 2009
The expected interest rate cut, broadband speeds and a UFO claim dominate the morning meeting.
"Whatever interest rate cut that we get we are into the unknown now - it is a complete experiment. There is no precedent for this.
"Everything the government is doing here now has not been tried before. Anyone who says that they know this is going to work is lying, including all the politicians.
"The big political picture here as well is who is in charge?"
"Monetary policy is clearly becoming something different - more of a focal point than it was - and there is a feeling that the treasury is taking the lead away from the Bank of England's previous independence."
The cut will have a genuine impact on 15-20 per cent of people on tracker mortgages, but what its impact will be elsewhere is unclear.
"There is evidence that the credible fear of becoming unemployed is having more of an influence on spending than any rates cuts, which are ironically intended to trigger spending and borrowing again.
"There is of course a school of thought that suggests the more they cut rates - to encourage spending - the more they actually continue to undermine confidence, and actually stop spending."
"Funnily enough I think you would find that savings are going up, even though interest rates are going down.
"In this sort of climate people become conservative and naturally save. It happened in Japan's collapse even though there was not great value in saving money at the time."
Following our investigation into slow broadband speeds last year, an Ofcom survey has found that consumers are not receiving the download speeds advertised by internet service provider (ISPs) in high street packages.
It found that rates were less than 4Mbps, despite packages offering "up to" 8Mbps.
"Can we say that the UK has the slowest network in the Europe?"
"We need to get the advertising standards people to comment on this too. Isn't it illegal to be selling services which are simply not being provided?"
Broadband speeds have been found by Ofcom to be at their slowest in rural areas.
"Maybe we can drop that into the piece - do a double take to show the speed at which some people watching the programme online would get to see it."
UFO researchers are claiming damage to a Lincolnshire wind farm turbine was caused by a mystery aircraft.
"People saw lights in the sky, that's good enough for me. It must be a UFO."
"It's not. It was most likely to be frozen urine. They drop it from planes and if it's really cold it freezes into a block and it stays like that until it hits the floor. Honestly, it happens. It killed a man in Kent once."
"That was not urine though, that was excreta."
"What a dreadful way to go..."
Our reporter will be getting to the bottom of the story, and finding out whether it really is a load of old...
