There are two options. One is that this is an event now, requiring to be accounted for at this moment. That is the option the government is adopting. The other is to suggest that this is an event happening in maybe 18 years time which has to be accrued for between now and then in equal equivalent stages over that period.
The higher capital repayment from RPI indexed bonds should not be assigned to this year. Instead, it should be discounted over time until redemption.
This from the man who insists that discounting the future is the work of the very devil.
Even then his calculation doesn’t work. Because if we do as he says, allocate over years to redemption, then where in the accounts are the allocations for this year from past inflation? The current accounting method means those increases are all buried in past year accounts. Spud’s chosen method would mean that this year’s accounts should have some portion of past inflation in them.
Andrew Broadbent says:
June 24 2022 at 12:46 pm
It is a very serious charge ‘ONS accounting not telling objective story’. You ought to challlenge ONS.
Reply
Richard Murphy says:
June 24 2022 at 1:54 pm
I have challenged them on this
Email exchanges happen quite often, to no avail
What accounts is he talking about? BTW, BoE must be recording massive losses in most of its QE purchases
Email exchanges happen quite often, to no avail
Tres Professori’s email address has obviously been added to the spam filter list.
Off topic it’s great to see the contra-Murphy reviews coming in on Amazon for the ‘Can’t We Just Print More Money?’ book he recently slated.
Even the latest 1* reviewer, one James Ferguson, is saying that Mr Murphy has it wrong.
Don’t governments just sell more new bonds faster than they have to redeem old ones, no taxes even needed?