Is Mervyn King’s reputation quietly on the mend? That’s certainly the inference we’d draw from an interview with Treasury Select Committee chairman John McFall in this week’s edition of Investment Adviser:
The times are so unpredictable at the moment. There is a bit of working in the dark. During turbulent times the last thing you want to do is have a knee-jerk reaction…Mervyn King adequately explained himself when he came before the committee. In the Northern Rock report, we made the point that the Bank of England was behind the ECB and the Fed, but it came into line in September, and we had the coordinated action in December of the Fed, the Bank of England and the ECB.
We have to keep in mind that this is a global financial environment, and in a global financial environment we need international cooperation.
But McFall has found something novel to fret about with the ongoing Crunch and the subsequent damage to the reputation of bankers – people are literally leaving the banking system. That’s a serious issue when McFall and like-minded politicos have invested some time and hot air in the topic of ‘financial inclusion’:
In today’s environment, people leave the banking system. That was one of the things we found from our financial inclusion report. If people are excluded from the financial community, then they are socially excluded as well.
Related links:
John McFall: Treasury Select Committee – Investment Adviser interview
Nick Rice, Investment Adviser