What is 'boiled frog syndrome'?
Everyone is now referring to the Bank of England's interest rate policy as boiled frog syndrome.
Basically the Bank of England are raising interest rates very slowly and cautiously and this is the water in the saucepan on a very low heat. We, Joe public are the frog.
Apparently, if you throw a frog into a saucepan of boiling water it will jump straight out (well wouldn't you?), but if you put it in a saucepan of cold water on a very low heat then the frog will not realise that the water is slowly warming up and will boil to death!
Getting back to the interest rate side of things, with these small rate rises every 3 months or so, people are shrugging off the minimal extra payments and absorbing them into their monthly bills. If however the Bank of England were to do a couple of big interest rate jumps or say 0.50%, 0.75% or even a whopping 1.00% then people would really sit up and take notice........and the frog would leap out of the saucepan!
