We can’t remember the last time Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of England did an interview with a leading UK newspaper, wire or broadcaster — outside of official conferences that is.
But he does talk. He talks to the locals, among them the Southern Daily Echo. Their scoop — that King thinks we are beginning to see signs of stabilisation — has made into all the UK press on Friday.
But in case you’ve only seen the wire reports, it is worth looking at the original report here (which by the way doesn’t even make the lead story).
Included are nice snippets like these, where Mervyn King compares himself to retired Southampton footballer Matthew Le Tissier:
“IT’S like Matthew Le Tissier taking a penalty”. That’s how the Governor of the Bank of England described handling “the worst financial crisis the world has ever seen”. “You and I would find it very stressful to take a penalty in those circumstances but that’s his job and it was our job to deal with that,” said Mervyn King, fresh from a tour of St Mary’s Stadium in Southampton
And we can understand why the governor would want to draw such parallels, because Le Tissier, unlike him, actually makes the lead. The Southern Daily Echo reports the former midfielder is about to be appointed chairman of Southampton FC.
But fear not, there were some non-football related comments too:
“We are in unknown territory and this is undoubtedly the worst financial crisis the world has ever seen. We got to a point last October where two of our largest banks were right up against it and were very close to failure and steps had to be taken to re-capitalise the banking system.“
Although in football speak that surely reminds us more of England circa 2007, no? In which case, could the following be indication of some FA rather than FSA-style crisis response from the Bank of England in the future? Mervyn tells the Southern Daily Echo:
“Having an ability to wind down a very complex and big organisation that can cause problems elsewhere means that the managers of those organisations know they could be wound down. At present they can hold a gun to the authorities’ head and we can’t afford to have that happen.
So that’s ‘winding down managers’ aka the Steve McClaren approach.
Related link:
Football hyperinflation – FT Alphaville