QE is bad economics – causes inflation and government borrowing solves any possible benefits.

Cooper said: “Quantitive easing to pay for infrastructure now the economy is growing is really bad economics. History shows it hits your currency, hits investment, pushes up inflation and makes it harder, not easier, to get the sustainable growth in a global economy we need to tackle poverty and support our public services.”

Cooper’s point is not that QE is always bad economics. She could not possibly say that since she was a member of the Labour government that first adopted the policy in 2009. Her argument is that QE was a response to a dire emergency and that the economy does not need more of it at this time.

The Bank’s monetary policy committee agrees. None of its nine members is currently backing the idea of more QE. Indeed, the MPC is toying with the idea of tightening policy by raising interest rates rather than adding to the amount of stimulus.

People’s QE in the current circumstances would therefore have to rest on the argument that it will provide a way of tackling a dearth of infrastructure spending and, by modernising the public realm, lead to higher productivity. But QE is not needed to do this. The same could be achieved by the government borrowing money at historically low interest rates.