So much for a subtle entrance.
Canada’s former rockstar central bank chief, Mark Carney, made the front page of every business news website circling the North Atlantic Thursday, his fourth day on the job as the new head of the Bank of England.
Scandal? Hardly. The press has been lit aflame by nothing – literally. In his inaugural meeting as governor, Carney didn’t lift a finger, leaving the central bank’s low-interest policy in place and stimulus spending plans intact.
As might be expected, press hounds on both sides of the Atlantic have been following the travails of Carney and wife Diana through every step — and mistep — of his first week at work.
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British rags have had a field day with comments made by Diana Carney, Mark’s British-born wife, over a disavowal of tea bags, which the left-leaning activist complained in a blog post were needless waste.
Headline-grabbing stuff.
It seems the sluggish UK economy is doing about as well as most, and will continue to keep rates low to entice more lending to borrowers to prop up weak growth. The decision did come as a bit of a surprise to some, it appears.
The news that Carney will continue to pump billions of pounds into the financial system sent stock markets soaring with the exception of those in the United States, which are closed for Independence Day.
Carney, 48, is the first foreigner to lead the United Kingdom’s central bank in its 319-year history.
He steered central bank policy in Canada from 2008 until June this year, and is credited with helping the domestic economy weather the sharp global downturn better than others, largely through a low-rate policy that encouraged consumer borrowing to spur growth.
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