Earlier this week it was announced that Canadian born Mark Carney is due to take the helm at the Bank of England When Mervyn King steps down at the end of June next year. He is the first non-Briton to be appointed to the role since the bank was established in 1694. As well as taking on King's role at the bank he will be given extra
responsibilities as the bank's remit is expanding to include
responsibility for regulation.
Carney has a solid CV, he worked for Goldman Sachs for thirteen years with high level experience in various departments, including sovereign risk and emerging debt capital markets. Through Goldman he was also involved in work on the Russian financial crisis in 1998.
He also has 9 years experience working for the Canadian department of finance and the Bank of Canada (Governor 2008- present) and is the current chairman of the G20's Financial Stability Board.
In short this man is no stranger to tackling debt issues.
He is well respected for his work at the Bank of Canada, and it is notable that the Canadians have emerged from the financial crisis in arguably better shape than the UK.
Personally I will be glad to see the back of Mervyn King, as you will see from previous blog posts I've written such as...
The Global Debt Crisis - Whose Fault? (Jan2012)
http://www.mattjbird.com/2012/01/global-debt-crisis-whose-fault.html
UK Residential Housing, The MPC & Interest Rates (Aug2012)
http://www.mattjbird.com/2012/08/uk-residential-housing-mpc-interest.html
Western Debt Junkies (Aug2012)
http://www.mattjbird.com/2012/08/western-debt-junkies.html
I think he has done a poor job at the bank, and that a big portion of the blame for our current situation should fall on his shoulders for excessively loose monetary policy during the boom years.
Interestingly I was talking to David (Danny) Blanchflower (Ex MPC member, and more importantly Cardiff City fan) yesterday via twitter and I asked him how he rated King's tenure at the bank. 3 out of 10 was the answer, because he ''Missed recession and double dip, (was) taken by surprise by bank failure and slayed dissenters.''
By his ''slaying dissenters'' remark he means (I think) getting rid of MPC members who don't agree with him, thus defeating the whole object of there being a voting system in place.
The press articles I've read thus far seem to paint Mr Carney as having a more hawkish outlook (advocate of higher interest rates) than King, hopefully this means an end to the QE madness that is ruining our bond markets. That would be a great start. Returning to monetary normality however wont be an easy task without upsetting our fragile economy.
I wish him the best of luck for all our sakes.
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