Surprised at the WSJ

The Wall Street Journal today says that the UK government
"...has already spent £600 billion on its financial bailout"
This is simply misleading. The government has made a lot of liquidity available in exchange for other assets through several Bank of England schemes. It has barely spent anything at all; even if you include the bank recapitalisations, which are also in exchange for equity, the figure is around 5% of the number quoted.

While this kind of stuff is to be expected from the Daily Mail and other tabloids, I am pretty surprised at it in the Wall Street Journal. I'm glad that the FT still maintains a standard of reporting that allows us to rely on its interpretations as well as its raw facts.

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