The most important public appointment of 2019: Our Letter to The Guardian

Positive Money’s view on the next Governor of the Bank of England

What will the UK economy look like in 2028?

It may seem like an impossible question to answer, but as soon as they start their new role in January 2020, that’s exactly what the next Governor of the Bank of England needs to be thinking.

The next eight years – the length of their time in office – will be dramatically shaped by three key trends; climate change, inequality and asset price inflation, and by the end of their term the world will undoubtedly be a very different place.

We need a Governor who is genuinely committed to serving the whole of society, not just global financial markets, and who will face these challenges head on, armed with new ideas and a fresh approach.

The deadline for applications is eleven o’clock this evening. It’s with this weight of responsibility that we at Positive Money wrote a public letter to The Guardian, published this morning, along with 94 high-profile signatories including Yanis Varoufakis, Ann Pettifor and Kate Raworth, academics from 44 universities, and organisations including Friends of the Earth, War On Want, Rethinking Economics, and the Royal Society of the Arts. 

We hope the Chancellor receives our message loud and clear. When making the final decision on who our next Bank of England Governor should be, they should not only truly consider the gravity of this appointment, but act upon it.

Please find the text of our letter and list of signatures in full below.

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Eleven o’clock this evening is the deadline for applicants to put themselves forward to be the next Governor of the Bank of England.

Candidates are asked to commit to an eight year term lasting until 2028. By then the world will be a very different place.

Three key trends will shape their time in post. First, environmental breakdown is the biggest threat facing the planet. The next Governor must build on Mark Carney’s legacy, and go even further to act on the Bank’s warnings by accelerating the transition of finance away from risky fossil fuels.

Second, rising inequality, fuelled to a significant extent by monetary policy, has contributed to a crisis of trust in our institutions. The next Governor must be open and honest about the trade-offs the Bank is forced to make, and take a critical view of how its policies impact on wider society.

Third, the UK economy is increasingly unbalanced and skewed towards asset price inflation. Banks pour money into bidding up the value of pre-existing assets, with only £1 in every £10 they lend supporting non-financial firms. The next Governor must seriously consider introducing measures to guide credit away from speculation towards productive activities.

As the world around it changes, the function of the Bank itself must evolve. Its current mandate and tools are increasingly coming into question, and a future government may assign the bank with a new mission. The next Governor must meet this with an open mind, not seek to preserve the status quo.

To equip the Bank to meet the challenges of the future, the new Governor will also need to ensure it benefits from a greater diversity of backgrounds, experience and perspectives throughout the organisation.

The Bank of England’s own stated purpose is to promote the good of the people. We need a Governor genuinely committed to serving the whole of society, not just financial markets.

Fran Boait

Positive Money

Josh Ryan-Collins

University College London (UCL)

Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP)

John Sauven

Greenpeace UK

Tom Kibasi

Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR)

Craig Bennett

Friends of the Earth (England, Wales & Northern Ireland)

Will Hutton

Author and academic

Patrick Allen

Progressive Economy Forum

Faiza Shaheen

Centre for Labour and Social Studies (CLASS)

Ann Pettifor

Prime Economics

Kate Raworth

University of Oxford

Sir Christopher Pissarides

London School of Economics

Yanis Varoufakis

University of Athens

Prem Sikka

University of Sheffield

Danny Dorling

University of Oxford

Asad Rehman

War on Want

Guy Standing

SOAS University of London

David Hillman

Stamp Out Poverty

Catherine Howarth

ShareAction

Maeve Cohen

Rethinking Economics

Jonathan Michie

University of Oxford

Natalie Sharples

Health Poverty Action

Joe Guinan

The Democracy Collaborative

Nick Dearden

Global Justice Now

Steve Keen

University College London (UCL)

Institute for Strategy, Resilience & Security

Jason Hickel

Goldsmiths, University of London

Tony Greenham

Royal Society of Arts

Johnna Montgomerie

Kings College London

John Weeks

SOAS University of London

Frances Coppola

Financial commentator and author

Dimitri Zenghelis

University of Cambridge

Rick Van Der Ploeg

University of Oxford

Molly Scott Cato

University of Roehampton

Ben Carpenter

Social Value UK

Philippe Aghion

London School of Economics (LSE)

Felix Fitzroy

St Andrews

Marianne Sensier

University of Manchester

Christine Cooper

University of Edinburgh

Elisa Van Waeyenberge

SOAS University of London

Roberto Veneziani

Queen Mary University of London

Andrew Denis

City University

Stewart Lansley

University of Bristol

Dimitris Sotiropoulos

Open University UK

Ulrich Volz

SOAS University of London

Panicos Demetriades

University of Leicester

Maria Nikolaidi

University of Greenwich

Julia Steinberger

University of Leeds

Sue Konzelmann

Birkbeck University

Roger Seifert

Wolverhampton Business School

Ozlem Onaran

University of Greenwich

Neil Lancastle

De Monfort University

Yannis Dafermos

University of the West of England

Alberto Botta

University of Greenwich

David Tyfield

Lancaster University

Kate Pickett

University of York

Philip Haynes

University of Brighton

Richard Wilkinson

University of Nottingham.

Peter Sweatman

Climate Strategy & Partners

David Graeber

London School of Economics (LSE)

Richard Murphy

City University

John Christensen

Tax Justice UK

Anna Laycock

Finance Innovation Lab

Colin Hines

Green New Deal Group

Sarah-Jayne Clifton

Jubilee Debt Campaign

Line Christensen

Jubilee Scotland

Stewart Wallis

Wellbeing Economy Alliance

Benjamin Braun

Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies (MPIfG)

Fiona Dove

The Transnational Institute

Annelise Riles

Buffett Institute for Global Studies

Ellen Brown

Public Banking Institute

Johan Frijns

Banktrack

Benoît Lallemand

Finance Watch

Joshua Farley

International Society for Ecological Economics

Ole Bjerg

Copenhagen Business School

Stephany Griffith-Jones

Columbia University

David Boyle

The New Weather Institute

Mark Blyth

Brown University

Bernard Barthalay

Université Lumière (Lyon)

Giorgos Kallis

Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

Jean-Marc Ferry

Alliance Europa

Joseph Huber

Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg

Ladislau Dowbor

Catholic University of São Paulo

Livio Di Matteo

Lakehead University

Marc Lavoie

University of Ottawa

Mark Sanders

Utrecht University

Sergio Rossi

University of Fribourg, Switzerland

Michel Lepetit

The Shift Project

Dirk Ehnts

Technical University of Chemnitz

Johann Walter

Westfälische Hochschule Gelsenkirchen

Steven Hail

University of Adelaide

Ludovic Desmedt

University of Burgundy

Terrence McDonough

National University of Ireland Galway

Rodrigo Fernandez

Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO)

Jean Luc de Meulemeester

The Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management