King Canute and the evils of money printing

King Canute and the evils of money printing
Former Bank of England governor Mervyn King expounds on the King Canute theory of inflation. (Image: Getty)
Jenny Ruth
The view that printing money is a very bad idea has some heavyweight support.For example, former Bank of England (BOE) governor Mervyn King has decried money printing by central banks around the world in reaction to the covid-19 pandemic, labelling it a mistake.Governments around the world had deliberately shut down parts of their economies to try to prevent the spread of covid, King noted in an interview with Sky News last month.But the decision by central banks to start printing money, otherwise known as quantitative easing (QE) and involving...

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Staff reporters 12 Sep 2025