David Blanchflower ejected from the Monetary Policy Committee
It would appear that David Blanchflower, a vocal member of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), has paid the price for his continued suggestion that the UK was on the verge of a serious recession. He was the first of the MPC members to step forward and predict a recession, something which did not go down very well with the government. While he appears to have left under his own steam there is speculation that he was replaced due to his negative comments which ultimately turned out to be correct.
There are growing concerns across the country that the government is looking to increase its influence over the MPC committee which ultimately decides the direction of UK base rates. This is at complete loggerheads with the government's recent policy of allowing the Bank of England to operate on an independent ticket. There has even been speculation that the government may well retake the Bank of England's independence and bring the "Old Lady" of Threadneedle Street back under government control.
While the government and the Bank of England are currently "singing from the same hymn sheet" there has been much conflict and friction over the last few months with Mervyn King also attracting much criticism from inside government walls.
Share this..
Related stories
Human error 'costing businesses a fortune'
Businesses are losing millions to fraudsters because of human error, a survey by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has revealed. The survey of 1,800 people found carelessness with passwords is the biggest risk to computer network security which criminals are taking advantage of. Just over one-third of people wrote down or stored their password or security information on their computer.Nea...
Read MoreWhy are the banks still in control of the UK economy?
Over the last few days a number of financial experts have been asking the question as to why the banks are still holding the UK economy to ransom. While a controversial argument, a look back over the last few months will see that the situation we are in at the moment was predominantly down to greed in the financial system. However, despite the banking sector around the world falling to its knees a...
Read MoreConcern and confusion over National Express
Reports in the weekend press suggested that the Cosmen family, the largest single investors in National Express, were so disturbed by the developments at the company that the chairman Jorge Cosmen was in fact looking to resign. The family has today issued a statement suggesting that no resignation is imminent although it is well-known that the family would rather the company reopened negotiations...
Read MoreMoody's believes further substantial financial losses to follow
Credit ratings agency Moody's believes that while the UK government should maintain the Triple-A rating for UK government debt there may be further movement on the ratings of some UK banks and building societies. While in total the UK financial sector has taken a hit to the tune of £110 billion since the recession began, Moody's believes there is a further £130 billion to come over the next few...
Read MoreFourth-quarter economic data disappoints market
While strictly speaking the UK economy has now moved out of recession, unless the figures released by the Office for National Statistics are amended down over the next few weeks, the improvement of 0.1% was far short of the 0.4% expansion expected by analysts. This indicates that the UK economic upturn is far weaker than even the most pessimistic of analysts had expected and a small revision by th...
Read More