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Hello and welcome to Spectator Out Loud. I'm Fraser Nelson. In this week's extracts,

we're asking Liam Halligan to read out his piece about quantitative easing and

the dangers, Lionel Schreiber to discuss the vanity of white guilt, and you send him

extra Graham on the perils facing choirs.

First, Liam Halligan.

The Futsi 100 index of leading stocks is over 20% up since Britain went into lockdown.

That's bull market territory.

The government borrowed 55 billion pounds in May, nine times more than the same month last year, yet borrowing costs are

down, with some investors now paying to lend to an increasingly indebted nation.

Who cares if the UK economy will shrink some 10% this year, as our national debt rockets

over 100% of GDP. Stocks are up, bond prices are up, and the laws of economics have been suspended.

It's different this time, and all because of quantitative easing.

Back in 2009 with the global banking system on the brink of collapse,

QE was a justifiable emergency measure. But this one-off post-crisis necessity

has now morphed into a lifestyle choice. For a decade since the financial crisis, QE has

pumped up share prices and suppressed bond yields, allowing governments to borrow cheaply.

But as state spending has surged post-COVID, we've

become dependent. QE is now the economic equivalent of crack cocaine. Originally a 50 billion

pound temporary rescue measure, the Bank of England, egged on by city financiers and high-spending

politicians, expanded

...