A particularly charged address from the Governor, perhaps…
Mervyn King gave a “personal assessment” of the inflation targeting regime over the past twenty years on Tuesday night. And seemed to suggest that it may be best to allow UK inflation to over-shoot the 2 per cent target given the current economic environment in order to minimise volatility. Read more
The window to apply for Mervyn’s seat at the Bank of England just crashed shut. Gus decided against making a pitch and Glenn is looking shaky. Leaving Tucker in the lead, with Turner in second place… unless somebody has ghosted in under the radar, that is. Read more
Has the Bank of England been reading Chris Giles?
With the press looking to work up a decent Fed angle to the Libor furore, Britain’s central bank has just gone ahead and published correspondence between Sir Mervyn King and Tim Geithner, then president of the NY Fed, along with Paul Tucker’s related correspondence with the BBA. Read more
“The other effect of the euro-area crisis has been to create a large black cloud of uncertainty hanging over not only the euro area but our economy too, and indeed the world economy as a whole.”
On the third anniversary of the launch of quantitative easing in the UK, Dan Conaghan, author of The Bank – Inside the Bank of England, believes the Treasury Select Committee needs to take a fresh detailed look at Britain’s approach to monetary easing.
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It was almost a throwaway remark from Sir Mervyn King. At the end of another uncomfortable press conference, he floated the idea that the 2 per cent inflation target has had its day. In the real world, the target had it quite a while ago, given how long it is since prices were rising that slowly, but to hear the Governor of the Bank of England suggest it is as surprising as to hear the German Chancellor urging Greece to get on and devalue (just you wait).
The series of letters from the Governor explaining why inflation control failed stretches so far as to have lost all capacity to shock. Besides, there is now a sporting chance that the Bank will actually hit the target at some point later this year, a moment which would provide a suitable excuse to abandon it. The A-word wouldn’t be used, of course. Instead, there would be much talk of “broadening the remit” of the MPC to take into account credit conditions, growth and unemployment, rather as the Treasury used to claim it was doing when it dictated Bank Rate to the Bank. Read more
1About China's capacity to absorb more capital
2Japan's mini crash: Blame China, not just Ben
3Spain's awful unemployment
4Pump up, debase
5S&P 2,100, by Goldman Sachs
Show more6Everlasting credit, the long view
7Measure it however you like: inflation has been low and falling
8Buyback to enrich
9Apple Operations International, facts (?) du jour
10The Nikkei: a market abducted by retail
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