David Blanchflower, a leading economist and former member of theBank of England's monetary policy committee, has called on Mervyn King to quit as governor of the Bank of England following leaked US cables that he claims show King's "thirst for power and influence ... has clouded his judgment one too many times".
In his toughest attack on his former colleague to date, Blanchflower seized on revelations that suggest King may have been central in persuading leading coalition figures to back a far more dramatic deficit-reduction programme than any politician advocated during the election campaign.
I second David Blanchflower’s motion.
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It’s unfortunate. If King had been in a different role, you and I’d be saying that his assessment of Cameron and Osborne – as vain, shallow and incompetent – was spot-on.
I think the recent Mervyn King controversy shows that an independent central bank governor is a fantasy. All central banks have political views and they all have some kind of political agenda.
King’s right-wing stance on deficit reduction probably fits with what Cameron and Clegg wanted to do anyway… but it’s pretty obvious he should be replaced if Labour wins next time. For one thing, he initially completely misjudged the severity of the financial crisis in 2008. David Blanchflower would be a good choice for governor of the Bank of England under an Ed Miliband administration.
Bank of England governor Mervyn King warned last night that reform of the banking system could take “decades”
So we must be patient for the financial system to reform itself, some time or other , but dismantling the welfare state cannot happen quickly enough for him.
As for him going, he should never have been there in the first place.