I really hope that either I am misunderstanding the latest news from the UK or the newspapers are misreporting but...

It seems that the latest big idea to stimulate our failing economy is for banks to pay negative interst on current accounts. By my reckoning that means that if you put £100 pounds in today you'll have less next month, less the month after that and eventually nothing at which point they will start sending you bills to keep open the account that no longer contains any of your money.

I suppose the idea is that it will stimulate the economy by everyone taking out all their money and spending it.

Of course there would be such a run on the banks as the world has never seen with everyone trying to get their money out while they still have some.

Can't help thinking this hasn't been thought through.

Please, someone from the UK, tell me that this is either my misunderstanding or their misreporting.

Please.

I don't want to have to transport all my money to China in a tin box and put it under my bed.

There's always Switzerland or the Cayman Islands.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Geoff,

Amazing. You still have money to worry about?

Mainly because I haven't spent a penny of my money since I got a job in China!
Not even a penny of my Chinese salary since I took on a few private students.

Of course the negative interest deal might soon sort that out for me.

The UK is part of the EU. Can't you put your money in a German bank?

I suppose so - after all there was a huge fuss not long before I left the country - about the failed Icelandic bank where some UK savers had lost money because they had been advised to use it because it had very high interest rates.

I had not heard of negative interest rates before, but in this article, it says that Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland and Japan have all given negative interest rates a go...Wow!