It being that Great Neoliberal Gordon Brown who instituted the independence.
Why?
In order to insulate monetary policy from whatever idiocy the elected representatives would get it into. So, sure, curbing democratic control of the economy, that is indeed the point. Just like we have the law, judges, courts and juries to insulate crime and punishment from democratic control.
Usually he waits a day before contradicting himself. Whereas here he is arguing that Bank of England independence is central to neoliberalism but also that independence is a myth.
myth of the day – the guvnor appeared to rishi in a shower of gold and their issue rode a heli-winged unicorn to drop money into the maws of the starvated peasants of low academe long devoted to pius worship of the troll-deity MMT
Why did it take a Labour government to do this in the first place? You’d think they’d be more disposed to control.
G. Brown looked at the City looking at him and Tone. And realised that they’d fear rising inflation if he was in charge of interest rates. So, he gave up being in charge of interest rates to reduce that fear. This led to interest rates being lower than they would have been.
The entire point of BoE independence is that the markets don’t trust politicians very much. Therefore things politicians aren’t in charge of please markets.
I was just 20 years old in 1998 and didn’t really care in those days.
Its a blame game – if the BoE is independent then whatever it does can be blamed on its top brass rather than the politicians.
After all, just because its independent does not mean it makes all its own decisions. A word from the chancellor to the right ear and the right decision is made….
Right being what government wants rather than right in a traditional sense.
aaa said:
“Usually he waits a day before contradicting himself”
Increasingly not these days? Could we have a chart?
It looks like they’ve started teaching PowerPoint in infant schools judging by the colour scheme.
And does “Myth of the day” mean he’s going to produce something like this every day? This is going to be real fun after a few days.
Somehow I preferred the “venn diagrams for our times” series more than these myths of the day
I’m trying to work out the relevance of the different colours he’s used for highlighting. Is it simply a green-blue-red series (and if so, why not just use a single colour) or is there some relevance to the pairings?
– “independent” and “specific permission”
– “owned” and “neoliberal”
– “overruling” and “democratic control of the economy”
I can almost see a pattern there, but I can see better ways of pairing, e.g. “independent” and “owned, if he’s going for contrasts.
Or is it just whichever crayon he picks up next?
@RichardT
Good point, he follows no consistent pattern. one thing: “independant” and “owned” seem to be purple and blue instead of both blue. Doesn’t look like he’s trying to pair things, I think the words are just coloured for emphasis.
@RichardT. I suspect he’s riffing off the LGTBQWERTY vibe in an attempt to appear progressive.
Spud reminds me of the semi-literate posters on the Internet who RANDOMLY capitalise words. As I like to point out to them, it makes them appear demented.