When the Bank of England's money figures come out, the media conveniently provide us with on-the-spot evidence that the numbers are impossible to interpret.

Lending has fallen by billions! Business lending fell by a record £8.4 billion in July as the credit squeeze tightened its grip on firms, official figures have shown. The 1.7% fall in lending to "private non-financial corporations" is far worse than June's 0.2% decline and the biggest since the Bank of England's records began in 1997. Lending is down 2.9% year on year.

Mortgage payments exceed new borrowing.  People paid off mortgage debt faster last month than they took on new debt for the first time since records began in 1993, Bank of England figures showed today, suggesting a real housing market recovery could be some way off.

  QE providing Mixed Picture

  Sean O'Grady - the Bank's figures won't tell us much

Not knowing the exact effect of something is no good reason not to do it at all; if the house is on fire, you squirt water all over it, rather than stop to calculate the right number of gallons.  But I think this clearly calls for further investigation of what happens if QE is either too successful or not successful enough.