Mark Carney - the new Governor of the Bank of England

[King Damager]

Ok, so George Osbourne has announced the new Bank of England governor for an eight year term. The current man who will be appointed is, Mark Carney.

He's actually a relatively unexpected candidate, and the first non-British man to be governor.

I hadn't heard much about him, myself, but here's the brief on him, from that highly reliable source, Wikipedia:

Mark J. Carney (born March 16, 1965) is the eighth and current governor of the Bank of Canada and the current Chairman of the G20's Financial Stability Board.[1] These appointments were on October 4, 2007 (for a seven-year term), and on November 4, 2011 (for a three-year term).[2][3] Carney achieved these positions by working his way up the ranks of Goldman Sachs, the Canadian Department of Finance, and the Bank of Canada as Deputy Governor. Carney has been credited with shielding Canada from the worst effects of the late-2000s financial crisis, and has earned recognition by the Financial Times and TIME magazine as a top figure in the financial world.

It seems, judging by his current credentials, that he might be a pretty good man for the job (based on the above short summary). If I remember I'll update my views on this once I've read the economist articles on this, but what do people think?

kd

 

[King Damager]

I'll update my views on this once I've read the Spectator articles on this.

Oh, and inb4 the poostorm regarding his salary.

Seems to be well regarded, and Ed Balls agrees with the appointment which I suppose is a good thing. He kept Canada in reasonable good health whilst the World around her crumbled. However, it's strange that he took the job now but not when he was first approached some months ago.
Ultimately, I'm not sure that it'll really matter who's in charge though.

Yeah, it seems good that both agree on this, and Canada has indeed done impressively well, which is why I'm genuinely intrigued as to how well it goes.

8 year term as well, is particularly interesting. Gives him much much longer to implement change, something that would be useful for prime ministers, presidents or the such like. I do like e long term appointment. It means they can focus more long run than just 'short-run, woooo, I want to win next time' kind of thing...

Lets not talk about pay

kd

 

[King Damager]

So will he do anything different or just continue to print money?

He only does a five year term apparently (on BBC news at the moment), but he does have significant powers over bank regulation. Considering his role on the financial stability board, it really makes sense.

As for those who are bashing the whole Goldman Sachs thing, he's done a significant stint in public sector areas.

kd