I was told once that when Montague Norman was Governor of the Bank of England he used to keep other central bank chiefs waiting to meet him. The length of the wait depended on the relative power of the other Central bank. Five minutes for the Fed, ten for the Banque de France, two weeks for Albania.
But these days I am getting a bit worried about the attitude of the Bank of England, it seems the Old Lady of Threadneedle Street is easily offended. I discussed this issue only the other day but now apparently the Old Lady wants to stop banks moving business and staff into the EU to do business there. It thinks the EU is trying to take advantage of Brexit to steal business from the City.
Well, of course it is. What did the Bank think would happen? London used to be a competitive place to do business, now it is a competitor.
Banning a business from going where it thinks is best is also a strangely un-laissez faire attitude for Global Britain. The UK has made life more difficult for firms to do business in the EU, some of them need or want or are being encouraged to move, that is economics. If London is still the best place to do business firms will stay but this exposes the conundrum at the heart of this problem.
If the Bank cuts regulation, red tape and oversight to make London more attractive the EU will put up more barriers on firms working out of the City doing business in the EU. If you want to remain the finance centre of Europe you need them to like your regulations and rules.
The Bank is acting as if its dignity and power are being insulted. In a way they are but Montague Norman has been dead and buried a long time now.
https://jonty.substack.com/
Montague Norman is before my time so I will respect your knowledge of him. :)
It is 3 months now since we left and the EU is clearly determined to either smash our country for daring to leave their protectionist club or force us back on our knees, on their terms.
These are childish games but megalomania knows no boundaries. Play by the rules and get hurt by those choosing to ignore the rules (like legal procurement contracts). Ignore the rules and get hurt by their agreement legal sanction. Heads I win, tails I win.
Is there an answer that is fair and equitable? Only if EU decides to back off on the bullying and I suspect that will not be for some time yet. So we take the punishment until they decide we have learnt our lesson.