UK households, businesses and the government are paying an interest rate penalty because the Bank of England is winding down its multi-billion-pound bond portfolio more aggressively than other central banks, the asset manager Columbia Threadneedle said. Christopher Mahon, head of dynamic real return at Columbia, said the BOE’s plan to offload its government bonds faster than other major central banks was comparable to former Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown’s infamous decision to “sell gold at the bottom of the market” from 1999 to 2002. UK Treasury missed out on at least £2 billion ($2.5 billion) from the ... (full story)