Shaun Richards is an independent economist who specialises in inflation measurement and monetary economics. This follows a career in the City of London where he specialised in derivatives (mainly options) on interest rates and bonds. Shaun has also worked in Tokyo. He is a Bank of England watcher which covers the issues of monetary policy and money printing or quantitative easing (QE). Shaun also traded as a local on the London International Financial Futures Exchange where he mostly traded futures and options on future and present UK interest rates. We cover the following in our conversation: How credible is the Bank of England (BOE)? Rise in interest rates The cost of living crisis The energy debate CBDCs (digital currency) What can we be optimistic about in the UK economy? ***