Independence Is the Worst Form of Central Banking. Except for all the others.

In 1997, the triumphant New Labour duo of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown celebrated their arrival in Downing Street by making the Bank of England independent. Until then, UK monetary policy was set by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, an elected politician.

The Tory Kenneth Clarke, a lovable bruiser of British politics, was thereby turned into the last chancellor who also controlled the Bank’s monetary policy.

He was irate. “Why has the Right Honorable Gentleman so swiftly changed a system in which my decisions as chancellor produced the United Kingdom’s best performance on inflation for 50 years?” he asked Brown in the House of Commons. 

John Authers Bloomberg 3 July 2025

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2025-07-03/independence-is-the-worst-form-of-central-banking


https://englundmacro.blogspot.com/2025/07/fed-independence-is-already-dead-trump.html


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