Mervyn King, Columnist

The Looming Test for Central Bank Independence

Imagine “Yellen,” the musical.

March 1, 2021 at 12:01 AM EST

Mervyn King was governor of the Bank of England from 2003 to 2013. He is the Alan Greenspan Professor of Economics at NYU Stern School of Business and professor of law at NYU School of Law, and author (with John Kay) of “Radical Uncertainty: Decision-Making Beyond the Numbers.”

Star-crossed.
Photographer: Jessica McGowan/Getty Images

Before it’s here, it’s on the Bloomberg Terminal

LEARN MORE

This article is for subscribers only.

In the first two columns in this series, I asked what the pandemic meant for short-term fiscal policy and, looking farther ahead, for measures to accommodate structural shifts in our economies. This time I’ll ask what it means for monetary policy — and the starting point is to look back at a key moment in history.

March 4 is the 70th anniversary of the Treasury-Federal Reserve Accord, the agreement that re-established the central bank’s independence and has underpinned it ever since. In subsequent years, the idea of central bank independence spread across the developed world. But will it survive?

Before it’s here, it’s on the Bloomberg Terminal

LEARN MORE