People
Straight talking from Zhou
Straight monetarist talk these days is considered controversial in certain circles; and you would not expect to hear it coming from the mouth of the governor of the central bank of China, with all the country's communist traditions. But the "moderniser"…
Quote of the week from Hormats
"Had there been an IMF in the 1850s to insist that the United States create a strong central bank, its advice would have been bitterly resisted by many Americans".
"Upside down world" in Peru
Peru's central bank is in a state of flux. Its governor, Richard Webb, has abruptly resigned, lamenting to CentralBankNet that the central bank is caught up in "an upside down world". Webb's flight was prompted by unworkable differences between himself…
Dinkic goes down fighting
If the situation in Peru seems a little unstable, spare a thought for the devastation visited on Serbia's fledgling central bank. The government's use of a legislative blunderbuss to remove Mladjan Dinkic has triggered a sort of apocalyptic self…
McTeer, the Lonesome Dove
While many have criticised the Fed for being not being dovish enough by only cutting rates by a quarter point, this has not spoiled Bob McTeer's good humour.
Tietmeyer to open doors for Lazard's
Hans Tietmeyer, former president of Germany's Bundesbank, has joined Lazard's as a senior adviser. The appointment gives a boost to Lazard's position in Germany, where the bank has been adding senior staff over the past year.
Mervyn King looks up Sylvia Hotpants
Some people have been tempted to ask, "Do we need a new Bretton Woods"? According to Mervyn King, the answer is clearly "no". Why? Well, there are dangers in them woods. "My mother said, I never should, play with the gypsies in the woods". Especially if…
John Footman in key Bank role
The new Bank of England governor, Mervyn King, has set about selecting his top team and slotting people into jobs.
New Bank team take their bow
Appearing for the first time before the UK Treasury Select Committee in his new capacity as governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King disarmingly admitted to having "no idea" whether the current level of 3.5% of interests was the correct level. This…
Get ready for Reddy
The coast appears clear for Dr Yaga Venugopal Reddy, deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India until last year, to assume his well-deserved place as governor. Current governor Bimal Jalan is set to abandon the central bank in August, well before the…
Second term for Mexico's Ortiz
Guillermo Ortiz, the governor of the Bank of Mexico, looks set to push on through to a second term when his current term expires at the end of this year. Ortiz has confirmed that Fox will nominate him to the senate, whose approval will be needed for…
Signs of progress in Iraq
If the business of central banking may occasionally seem a touch hairy in Iraq, it isn't all bad. Although Faleh Salman, the man who has now been confirmed as governor of the central bank by the American interim administration, was the hapless victim of…
A twenty-first century BIS
73 years on and the world's oldest international financial organisationwith it, the BIS is alive and well. As usual, a swarm of central bankgovernors great and small descended on Basel last weekend to participate inthe BIS annual meetings.
King assumes his throne
The long-awaited moment has arrived: Mervyn King has moved into EddieGeorge's offices on Threadneedle Street, now that he has been baptised asgovernor of the Bank of England.
Dogfighting over the ECB
The European League for Economic Cooperation (ELEC) has issued aresolution betraying unease that appointments to the ECBexecutive board could degenerate into a more or less continuous politicaldogfight.
Stand-off in Bulgaria
The mess in the ECB appointment process also needs to be cleared up to set anexample to other countries as to how these things should be done. Bulgaria might have benefited from this.
A lean machine
The central bank in Ghana is cutting back its staff drastically. Some central banks in the Eurosystem will be jealous.
Crockett honoured
Andrew Crockett always did have one of those names that look as if it is just waiting to have a "sir" in front of it. Now the space has been duly filled as the former central banker and general manager of the BIS received a knighthood from the Queen of…
Central banker and football fan
Mervyn King, the new governor of the Bank of England is a well-known supporter of Aston Villa, the English football club. In fact, until recently King was senior vice-president of the club.
Hooray for Trichet!
So the Paris courts have once and for all cleared Banque de France governor Jean-Claude Trichet and his predecessor Jacques de Larosiere from the unfounded allegations that had been made about their role in the Credit Lyonnais affair more than 10 years…
The Eddie and Gordon show
Praise was liberally showered on Sir Edward George at his City swansong, the annual Lord Mayor's banquet for the square mile's great and good - Eddie's 27th in a row. Gordon Brown, Chancellor of the Exchequer, praised his integrity, steadfastness and…
Iraqi governor faces the mob
A central banker's lot doesn't really get much less appealing than that of Faleh Salman, the man now shouldered with the responsibility of running Iraq's sickly central bank. To avert total meltdown of what little remains of the Iraqi financial system,…
Balcerowicz survives
Embattled central bankers in Poland triumphed after a skirmish with finance minister Kolodko, who has now resigned after failing to sandbag the central bank into shelling out a further 5bn zlotys (having already parted with 9bn zlotys) from its…
Female deputy for the RBI
In a peculiar case of slighted honour, an executive director at the Reserve Bank of India resigned when the central bank followed in the Bank of England's footsteps by appointing its first female deputy governor last week.