I received the press release I reproduce below from the Bank of England yesterday.
At first, I thought about ignoring it.
Then I thought about pointing out how patronising it is that the Bank of England thinks that it can change the financial literacy of the UK by offering a few prizes worth £1,000 each and that it showed just how little they value both the people of this country and economic education. Given that the total cost of employing Andrew Bailey is well in excess of his £600,000 pa salary, do they really think the education of young people is worth less than one per cent of that sum?
And then, I just decided to share it in full, as follows:
News release
What's inflation? How does monetary policy work? And what does the future of money look like? For anyone who's ever wondered what the answers to these questions are, the Bank of England's new quiz is here to help. Plus, participants will have the chance to win £1,000 in cash!
The Bank is launching an exciting competition that aims to develop people's economic literacy in a fun and engaging way. Over the next six weeks, the Bank is inviting young people aged 18+ to build their knowledge of economics and personal finance by taking part in our Mind Your Moneyquiz.
Partnering with LADbible and working with a number of financial content creators, the Bank of England's new competition will deliver engaging financial education content to younger audiences on channels they use.
Each week's quiz will focus on a different economic and personal finance theme, and will aim to build people's confidence in that subject. These themes are: budgeting, savings, investment, inflation, monetary policy, and the future of money.
Participants are invited to watch a short educational video on that week's theme, and then take a quiz. Participants who answer all four questions correctly will be entered into a free draw to win weekly gift card prizes worth up to £300, and entered into the draw for the grand prize of £300, £500 and £1000 cash.
Commenting on the quiz, Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey said:
“The Bank of England has an important role to play in improving financial literacy in the UK. We know younger people could use more support to build their financial literacy and this campaign aims to help them do just that.”
The quiz Opens in a new window starts on 19 January and will run for six weeks until 1 March 2025.
I think the one thing we can be sure of is that this process will teach an approach to economics that is wrong. Far too much of what the Bank has to say and do is based on economics of that sort.
I will watch this with interest.
But the real question is, should I prefer an alternative view? I will wait to see what the first of these is like, and then I might have a quiz on that.
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2 thoughts
1 – the first module should be: “what is money & where does it come from?”
2 – the first entrant, doing it live on video, under exam conditions, should be the Chancellor.
Richard can mark her paper.
Broadcast result on a Sunday morning politics slot.
🙂
What might be fun? Re-post the questions here (without any video training). Compare range of this blog’s contributions to the BoE sanctioned “right answer”. If you wanted “a competition”… How about the blog contribution that explains the differences in a factually valid yet humourous way.
The prize: winner allowed to feel slightly smug for short period of time!
Let’s see what they ask
I think you’re being a bit of a killjoy on this one. More financial literacy is a worthy objective, and it’s good that someone is tackling that challenge. But I’m sure most followers of this blog will share my unease about exactly what the Bank of England will be trying to teach. Let’s hope the narrative turns out to be less lopsided than we fear.
Me? A killjoy? How dare you!
They used to have an intruction programme for schools called “econoMe” to which I subscribed. It taught all the old mainstream guff. I think this “initiative” is another attempt to indoctrinate another generation. I’ve looked at it and, like econoMe, you have to register and I suspect you would need to supply some proof of age because it is meant for 18+ youngsters. I haven’t tried it yet, though.
I think it opens on Monday
They should just give the whole budget for this to Tax Research / Funding the Future.
End of.
Sorted.
Now , can we move on please?
Is this just a new generation being totally misled, some might say deliberately misinformed, about money and its creation?
‘young people aged 18+’
lucky me, turned 81 last week so might win my winter fuel allownace back !
I’m looking forward to the quizzes. They are a quick and easy way of engaging with a subject, and they can act as a stimulus to further learning. Thank you for bring this to your readers’ attention.
It seemed to me to suggest to anyone engaging with the material that macro could be derivable from micro. And nothing could be further from the truth.