Mervyn King attacks Prof Blanchflower
Governor of The Bank of England, Mervyn King, has today launched a scathing attack on former MPC member Prof Blanchflower. As we covered in one of our recent posts, Prof Blanchflower was highly critical of Mervyn King's "iron fist" mentality and in fact put himself forward as the person who spotted the UK recession first and realised how deep it could be. However, for an institution which is so secretive in nature and very rarely in the press this attack by Mervyn King is very surprising to say the least.
The Gov of the Bank of England has suggested that Prof Blanchflower's decision to go public with his comments was both unwise and unhelpful and not befitting somebody who was a member of the MPC. The MPC is the all-encompassing committee which sets UK base rates and any other strategies required to help the UK economy. Even though minutes for the MPC are released on a monthly basis this is one of the most secretive committees in the world until today!
Under pressure from the Treasury select committee to discuss Prof Blanchflower's various comments and suggestions it was obvious that Mervyn King was uncomfortable divulging facts from various MPC meetings. Whether the Bank of England will be more select in its choice of members in the future remains to be seen.
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