Then and now

From The Telegraph, 8 January 2009:

There are growing concerns that interest rate cuts are failing to have the desired impact and that more radical action may now be needed. The Chancellor and the Bank of England may increase the money supply and use the extra cash to buy assets such as government or company debt... The Bank of England is being urged to consider injecting money directly into the economy by printing more money, a process known as quantitative easing.

George Osborne... said last night: "The very fact that the Treasury is speculating about printing money shows that [the government] has led Britain to the brink of bankruptcy. Printing money is the last resort of desperate governments when all other policies have failed. It can't be ruled out as a last resort in the fight against deflation, but in the end printing money risks losing control of inflation and all the economic problems that high inflation brings."