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 |