"It was the same schtick as governor Andrew Bailey pulled a few months back" - Neil Wilson, Finalto Trading.

© Bank of England

Bank of England (BoE) Chief Economist Huw Pill drew the ire of market pundits, media commentators and members of the public alike this week with the publication of controversial remarks suggesting Britons should just "accept that they're worse off," due to inflation, and below is the fanmail. 

Chief Economist Huw Pill made the controversial remarks while participating in an episode of the "Beyond Unprecedented" Columbia University podcast titled Inflation: Not Dead Yet focusing on the UK's double-digit inflation rate and the BoE's effort to bring back to the two percent target.

Among many other things, he told fellow participants there are multiple reasons for this target including the desire to provide companies and individuals with an anchor for their expectations in the hope of facilitating the sorts of investment necessary to sustain the economy in the medium and long term. 

But inflation has remained substantially above the two percent target for almost two years now due to multiple supply-side "shocks" including the after-effects of the pandemic and the increase in energy prices that followed along from Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The risk is now that policymakers face living through one of the Bank of England's biggest nightmares in which companies and individuals respond to inflation by raising prices for products, services and salaries. 

Salaries are one of the largest costs faced by businesses and so can be a particularly influential driver of product or service prices; so inflation. 

"That pass-the-parcel game that's going on here, that game is one that's generating inflation, and that part of inflation can persist," Pill said.

However, it's the suggestion that everybody simply "accept that they're worse off," which has struck a nerve with many and below is merely one of the receipts. 

Neil Wilson, chief market analyst, Finalto Trading 

"Huw Pill, the chief economist at the Bank of England, thinks maybe we should just pipe down and stop complaining about the drain on living standards."

"I thought that was anathema to the entire history of capitalist ‘progress’ since the industrial revolution?"

"It was the same schtick as governor Andrew Bailey pulled a few months back: ‘don't ask for a pay rise – you'll only make inflation worse’. Well that’s not how it works pal and you are treating people like idiots."

"Meanwhile Ben Broadbent, also of the MPC, says QE had nothing to do with inflation. These people are actually the ones making the decisions – they are unelected and unspeakably arrogant. Maybe focus on doing your job instead of spouting about workers’ demands for fair pay."