Tag Archives: Bank of England
What Osborne should have said
George Osborne, Chancellor of the Exchequer, made an autumn statement in the House of Commons yesterday. This is what he should have said. Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, Successive governments have allowed the problems related to and in part caused by the operations of banks in this country to drag on. No solution is in…
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The New Bank of England
A well-informed correspondent, who did not want to be identified, predicts a full “spring clean”: “ I’m inclined to think Carney’s denial of interest (in becoming Governor) was genuine rather than a negotiation tactic like Napoleon’s thrice refusal of the title of emperor. However the denial of interest may have been based on…
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Carney’s likely priorities
Understanding markets and power leads to one conclusion Those who are familiar with his thinking report that he will be keen to emphasise that responsibility for managing risks lies with the firms themselves. So he will be big on reforming governance of financial institutions. He will insist that bank boards live up to their duty…
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Some nuanced views of Mr Carney
The UK media have been gushing in their welcome. It is right to welcome central banking’s “rock star”. But not everybody has been carried away by the euphoria…you only have to scan the Canadian press today: Andrew Coyne at the Montreal Gazette That our banking system was not so badly mauled by the crisis as…
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What’s the G30 doing?
It follows the appointment of G30 member Mario Draghi to be president of the European Central Bank (which raised eyebrows in some circles, see here) . Last year also member Mervyn King became chair of the Group of Governors and Heads of Supervision (GHOS), the Global Economy Meeting (GEM) and the Economic Consultative Committee…
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The governor stakes revisited
I have mentioned the familiar names – Tucker, Vickers, Turner, Burns. Of these Paul Tucker has the deepest grasp of the issues the new governor will confront, and he is getting encouragingly more radical on bank reform – like everybody else. Even Lord Turner has been asking questions about the whole viability of fractional…
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The Sun King and The Money Trap
The knives are out for Sir Mervyn (“The Sun” ) King. Commentators who once stood in awe now rush to condemn him.This is not a pretty sight. It is also unfair to someone who, while not being the right man to manage the UK’s biggest financial crisis ever, has made important contributions to re-thinking…
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Is it to be a Burns-Vickers double-act?
Recent suggestions that Lord (Terry) Burns may be appointed chairman of a revitalised Court (Board of Directors) with greater powers of surveillance than the present Court make a lot of sense. That means the choice of governor, who will serve one term of eight years, may be between Paul Tucker, deputy governor, and Sir John…
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Central banks remain stuck in the trap
Mervyn King has mounted a defence of inflation targeting. Monetary policy, he claims, is part of the solution to the crisis, not part of the problem. This view was echoed by many official spokesmen at the recent IMF meeting in Tokyo. Christine Lagarde praised the central banks. There are quite minor…
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Book Notes: The Money Trap
First published in Central Banking, Vol XXIII, Number i, August 2012, page 86. Four insights in particular are worth mentioning: First, Pringle is right to draw attention to the frequency of financial instability in the post-Bretton Woods world. Since the early 1980s there has been an average of one such episode every three years. The relationship between these…
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