The Right Honourable
The Lord King of Lothbury
KG GBE DL FBA
Official portrait, 2019
Governor of the Bank of England
In office
1 July 2003 – 1 July 2013
Appointed byGordon Brown
Preceded byEdward George
Succeeded byMark Carney
Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
Assumed office
22 July 2013
Life peerage
Personal details
Born
Mervyn Allister King

(1948-03-30) 30 March 1948 (age 75)
Chesham Bois, Buckinghamshire, England
Spouse
Barbara Melander
​
(m. 2007)​
Alma materKing's College, Cambridge (BA, MA)
St John's College, Cambridge
Harvard University
Mervyn King on the Today programme
from the BBC programme Today, 2 May 2012[1]

Mervyn Allister King, Baron King of Lothbury KG, GBE, DL, FBA (born 30 March 1948) is a British economist and public servant who served as the Governor of the Bank of England from 2003 to 2013. He is a School Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics. He is also the Chairman of the Philharmonia.

Born in Chesham Bois, Buckinghamshire, King attended Wolverhampton Grammar School and studied economics at King's College, Cambridge, St John's College, Cambridge, and Harvard University. He then worked as a researcher on the Cambridge Growth Project, taught at the University of Birmingham, Harvard and MIT, and became a professor of economics at the London School of Economics. He joined the Bank of England in 1990 as a non-executive director, and became the chief economist in 1991. In 1998, he became a deputy governor of the bank and a member of the Group of Thirty.

King was appointed as governor of the Bank of England in 2003, succeeding Edward George. Most notably, he oversaw the bank during the financial crisis of 2007–2008 and the Great Recession. King retired from his office as governor in June 2013, and was succeeded by Mark Carney. He was appointed a life peer and entered the House of Lords as a crossbencher in July 2013. Since September 2014 he has served as a professor of economics and law with a joint appointment at New York University's Stern School of Business and School of Law.[2]

Early life and career

Mervyn King is a son of Eric King, a railway porter who retrained as a geography teacher after the war, and Kathleen (née Passingham).[3][4] He was born in Chesham Bois, Buckinghamshire, and studied at Warstones Junior School Wolverhampton and then at Wolverhampton Grammar School. He matriculated at King's College, Cambridge (gaining a first-class degree in economics in 1969; MA); St John's College, Cambridge; and, as a Kennedy Scholar, Harvard University.[5][6] Whilst at Cambridge, King was treasurer of the Cambridge University Liberal Club in 1968.[5][7] While at Harvard, King's academic advisor and mentor was American economist Martin Feldstein who he described as "a very important influence."[8]

After graduation, he worked as a researcher on the Cambridge Growth Project with future Nobel Laureate Richard Stone and Terry Barker at the University of Cambridge. He then taught at the University of Birmingham and was a visiting professor at Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where he shared an office with then-assistant-professor Ben Bernanke. King says that while at Birmingham, he was influenced by the Austrian School of Economics.[8] From October 1984 he was Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics where he founded the Financial Markets Group.[5] In 1981, he was one of the 364 economists who signed a letter to The Times condemning Geoffrey Howe's 1981 Budget.[9][10]

Bank of England

King joined the bank in March 1991 as chief economist and executive director, after being a non-executive director from 1990 to 1991. He was appointed Deputy Governor in 1997, taking up his post on 1 June 1998. In the same year, King became a member of the Group of Thirty. An ex-officio member of the bank's interest-rate setting Monetary Policy Committee since its inception in 1997, King took part in its monthly meetings. He succeeded Sir Edward George as governor on 1 July 2003, and was also the first incumbent governor of the Bank of England to be received in audience with Queen Elizabeth II.[11]

While Governor, King was responsible for putting Matthew Boulton and James Watt on the £50 note, Adam Smith on the £20 note, and Winston Churchill on the £5 note.[12][8]

The financial crisis in the late 2000s

After becoming Bank governor, King explained that Bank of England policy was "similar to that of the Federal Reserve" under Alan Greenspan. Greenspan described his approach as "mitigat[ing] the fallout [from the bursting of a bubble] when it occurs".[13] King agreed with Alan Greenspan that, "It is hard to identify asset price 'bubbles'."[13]

Other warnings about the UK housing market followed, including from the National Institute of Economic and Social Research in 2004[14] and the OECD in 2005.[15] King noted the "unusually large" difference between the RPIX and CPI at the beginning of 2004 (the latter does not include house prices as part of its inflation measure, whilst the former does),[16] and, six months later, that UK house prices had risen "to levels which are well above what most people would regard as sustainable in the longer term", having increased by more than 20% over the preceding year and more than 100% over the preceding five.[17]

In 2005, The Economist described the run-up in UK house prices as forming part of "the biggest bubble in history",[18] and, by October 2007—when the UK housing bubble was at its peak[19] — the IMF was reporting that the UK housing market was "overpriced by up to 40 per cent".[20] As noted by the OECD, house-price volatility "can raise systemic risks as the banking and mortgage sectors are vulnerable to fluctuations in house prices due to their exposure to the housing market."[21]

Dean Baker in The American Prospect said the failure by Greenspan and King to tackle the bubbles in their respective countries' housing markets resulted in catastrophic "fallout" when the bubbles burst, resulting in the worst recessions in both countries since the Great Depression.[22] UK–US inaction may be compared to action taken by China[23][24][25][26][27] and Australia.[28]

Another result of the financial crisis was King's rejection of the bank's devout focus on price stability, or inflation targeting, a policy that was instituted after Black Wednesday in 1992 and that was continued by King after becoming governor in 2003.[29] One of the two early lessons King drew from crisis were that "price stability does not guarantee stability of the economy as a whole" and that "the instruments used to pursue financial stability are in need of sharpening and refining."[30]

The 2012 Financial Services Bill, in transferring the majority of macroprudential regulatory powers from the FSA to the bank, will grant the Financial Policy Committee (chaired by King) the power to curb lending in booms, including placing limits on the public's access to mortgages.[31] A former, senior BoE official summed up the bank's pre-crisis performance: "How can you look back with the benefit of hindsight and see it as a success? We were responsible for financial stability and we utterly failed to take any avoiding action against the greatest financial crisis in our lifetimes".[4] David Blanchflower said that, even as late as the summer of 2008, King did not even see the financial crisis coming.[32]

In its review of Bank of England accountability, one of the major complaints of the Treasury Select Committee was the bank's refusal to undertake an internal review of its performance during the financial crisis.[33] Such a review would pose difficulties since evidence on how its most senior policymakers arrived at their decisions was destroyed as a matter of course.[33] By contrast, the United States publishes the Federal Reserve's deliberations with a five-year lag, which have provided "the most detailed picture yet of how top officials at the central bank didn't anticipate the storm about to hit the U.S. economy and the global financial system."[34] As in the UK, the US central bank's failure led to a new regulatory framework, the 2010 Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.[34]

Response to crisis

King argued that when the financial crisis and bank meltdown hit in autumn 2008, he and other Western central bankers "prevented a Great Depression", in part by cutting interest rates to virtually zero. The Economist agreed, saying that he "has a point".[35] A 2012 review of actions taken by Western central banks in the face of the crisis also supported King's claim.[36] The bank has faced criticism, however, for the pace of the rate cuts, which took five months from the beginning of October 2008 to get down from 5.0% to 0.5%, where they remained for several years.[37][38]

After becoming only the second Bank of England governor to speak to the TUC in its 142-year history, King conceded that people were "entitled to be angry" about unemployment and the bank bailout.[39]

King has been scathing about the banking sector since it crashed, especially its "breathtaking" £1 trillion bailout and its continuation of bonus awards in 2009, calling for a serious review of banking's structure and regulation.[40]

In a The Daily Telegraph interview in March 2011, King said banks had "put profits before people", that failure to reform the sector could result in another financial crisis, and that traditional manufacturing industries have a more "moral" way of operating.[41] In an interview with The Times in March 2012, he said that the banks are still in denial about the "very real and wholly understandable" anger that is felt at their behaviour,[42] Bankers have not been happy with his excoriating views and insistence on avoiding moral hazard, but King insists that "[m]arket discipline can't apply to everyone except banks", pinpointing the banks' sense of grievance on their finding it "very, very difficult to face up to the failure of their banking model".[42]

With King's term as governor ending in 2013, top UK banks have warned that unless a less "hostile" figure is found as a successor, they may feel it necessary to move abroad.[43][44] On 26 November 2012, Mark Carney was named as King's successor.

Banks bailout

King had faced accusations[who?] of refusing funding to the Northern Rock Bank, precipitating a run on that bank, a situation not seen in the UK since 1914.[45] King later said that it had been the chancellor, Alistair Darling, not he, who had the final word on refusing the necessary help to Northern Rock.[46] In his review of King's tenure as governor, Times journalist David Wighton wrote:

Sir John Gieve, the Deputy Governor for financial stability, . . . was widely seen as the fall guy for the Bank's dithering over Northern Rock a few months earlier. In fact, he had been urging King to act, and his allies accused King of failing to defend him when the chairman of the Commons Treasury Committee accused Gieve of being "asleep in the back shop while there was a mugging out front". Gieve's mother had died at the height of the Northern Rock crisis and he had taken a few days off. King failed to make clear to the committee that this was why his deputy had been away. King's behaviour had been "very bad form", according to one former Bank director.[43]

In his memoirs, Alistair Darling was critical of King for emphasising moral hazard—the doctrine of not saving the banks from the consequences of their own mistakes—instead of rescuing the banks by pumping money into them as the banking-system meltdown occurred in autumn 2008.[47] Despite his refusal to give funding to the retail banks, he retained his job, and submitted in defence to a Treasury Select Committee (New York Times/Financial Times, 20 September 2007) that his actions were on the basis that the Bank of England was the "lender of last resort" but subsequently supported moves to provide funding to those banks which had been nationalised or partly nationalised.[citation needed]

Political interventions

It has been alleged that King's Mansion House speech for 2009 helped to bolster the Conservatives during the approach to the general election by issuing high-profile criticisms. King called for the break-up of the country's biggest banks, as well as arguing that, unless the bank was given more active, interventionist powers to ensure financial stability, it would be like a church: able to "do no more than issue sermons or organise burials."[30][43] King later advised a rebalancing of the economy, increased saving, and an "elimination of the structural deficit".[40] In November 2009, he told MPs that the then Labour government's intention of halving the deficit over the next five years was insufficient.[48] In May 2010, just days after the Coalition government was formed,[49] King said he had spoken to Chancellor George Osborne and supported his plans to cut spending by a further £6 billion within the 2010–11 fiscal year.[48] The Liberal Democrats did not need to be talked around to agreeing to the severity of the cuts.[50]

In November 2010, it was revealed that some senior staff at the Bank of England (one of them was David Blanchflower)[32] were uncomfortable with King's endorsement of the government's public spending cuts, accusing him of overstepping the boundary between monetary and fiscal policy. King's support for the government's cuts was in spite of concerns within the bank that cutting spending so rapidly could derail the UK's nascent economic-recovery.[48] These revelations led to accusations of King being a "coalition courtier"[51] and of making "excessively political"[52] interventions with regard to UK economic policy.[50]

The accusations were given greater weight after the December 2010 WikiLeaks Cablegate.[53][54] As a result of the WikiLeaks disclosures and David Laws' account of the Tory-Lib-Dem coalition-talks, King was asked by the Political and Constitutional Reform Select Committee to explain why he was seemingly cited in the talks as backing Tory plans to introduce spending cuts this year.[55] King insisted to the committee that "at no stage did I offer any advice on the composition of any measures designed to reduce the government deficit";[56] the committee implicitly accepted King's explanation of events as he is not even mentioned, let alone criticised, in their final report.[57]

According to George Osborne, Gus O'Donnell made an offer to have King brief the Tories and Lib Dems during the Coalition's formative talks; however, the parties suspected they "knew what he was going to say and . . . also thought it was more appropriate for our Treasury spokesmen to talk to him".[58]

King was criticised again in May 2012 on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, on the day before an election, after he expressed approval of Coalition austerity measures.[59]

In a speech to the European Parliament in Brussels in May 2011, King commented that the Bank of England was more concerned with the broader stability of the economy and banking sector than with inflation figures: "The economic consequences of high-level indebtedness now would become more severe if rates were to rise. It is the main reason why interest rates are so low."[60] With regard to Project Merlin, King was critical of Chancellor Osborne's misleading figures, and correctly predicted in a "light plausibility check" that Merlin would be a failure.[61] In March 2009, King said any plan for a second fiscal stimulus by the UK Government had to be done with caution.[62]

In his Mansion House speech in June 2009, King criticised Chancellor Alistair Darling for resisting significant changes to the allocation of regulatory responsibilities between the FSA, the Treasury and the bank, which would have given the bank greater power to fulfil its role of ensuring economic stability.[63][64][65]

In January 2012, King received a letter from the government's former chief scientific adviser Sir David King, Zac Goldsmith, former environment minister John Gummer (and 17 others) warning of the possibility of a carbon bubble.[66] King agreed to an evaluation of the matter.[67]

The BoE's Financial Policy Committee, established to identify emerging bubbles in the financial system, agreed in March 2012 to ask Parliament for new policy tools to be used to prevent another financial crisis. King said that the FPC narrowed its choice of instruments to three—the power to ensure banks have countercyclical capital buffers, the ability to force banks to hold more capital against exposure to specific sectors judged risky, and the power to set leverage ratios—because it will be important to explain to parliament and the wider public why it is or is not using them.[68]

Late March 2019, he argued that the UK should leave without a deal in the wake of the UK's decision to leave the European Union, arguing that the economic consequences would be limited, and that the UK was well-prepared after six months of preparations.[69]

Personal life

King's wife, Barbara Melander, is a Finnish interior designer and comes from the Swedish-speaking minority in Finland. They married in a private ceremony in a church in Helsinki in 2007.[3] King's favourite band is ABBA.[8]

King is a fan of Aston Villa F.C. He once arranged a game between Bank of England employees and ex-Villa players.[70] He served on Villa's board of directors from February until April 2016, and then he, along with fellow board member former Football Association chairman David Bernstein, resigned in protest against owner Randy Lerner's stewardship of the club.[71] In January 2024, King was named by Aston Vila as a member of the Honorary Anniversary Board ahead of the club's 150th anniversary season.[72]

King briefly found himself commentating on an Ashes Test Match for BBC Radio's "Test Match Special" in 2005, while being interviewed by Simon Mayo. He is the president of the cricket foundation Chance to Shine programme, which fosters competitive cricket in state schools. He is a member of the AELTC and MCC. In 2015, he became president of Worcestershire County Cricket Club[73]

Cambridge University honoured him as an honorary Doctor of Laws (Hon LLD) in 2006. He also received honorary degree from Abertay University in July 2013.[74] King is also a Visiting Fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford.[75]

In 2015, King was listed as the 11th most influential person in the Financial Centres International top 500.[76]

Honours and arms

Honours

King was appointed Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE) in the 2011 Birthday Honours.[77][78] He was appointed to the Order of the Garter on 23 April 2014.[79][8]

On 19 July 2013, King was appointed a life peer by Queen Elizabeth II for 'contributions to public service'. King entered the House of Lords on 22 July 2013 as a crossbencher, taking the title Baron King of Lothbury, of Lothbury in the City of London.[80][81]

On 6 January 2016, King was appointed to be a Deputy Lieutenant of Kent by the Lord Lieutenant of the same county, The Viscount De L'Isle.[82]

Coat of arms

Coat of arms of Mervyn King, Baron King of Lothbury
Coronet
Coronet of a Baron
Crest
Within a Circlet of five Pears Sable, three manifest, an Oast House Or, the roof Argent.
Escutcheon
Azure, a representation of the central façade of the Bank of England Argent, between two Flaunches Or, each charged with a Book Argent, bound Murrey, clasped Or.
Supporters
Dexter: a Lion Or, holding in the sinister forepaw a Caduceus Bleu-Celeste, the rod Murrey. Sinister: a Lion crowned with an Ancient Crown Or, the dexter foreleg in Armour Argent, holding in the Gauntlet a Sword fesswise Bleu-Celeste, hilt and pommel Murrey.
Orders
Order of the Garter (Appointed 2014)

Order of the British Empire (Appointed GBE 2011)

Banner
The banner of the Baron's arms used as knight of the Garter depicted at St George's Chapel.

Books

King's books include:

References

  1. ^ "The Today Programme Lecture". Today. 2 May 2012. BBC Radio 4. Retrieved 18 January 2014.
  2. ^ "NYU Stern - Mervyn King - Alan Greenspan Professor of Economics". www.stern.nyu.edu. Archived from the original on 20 September 2017. Retrieved 26 September 2017.
  3. ^ a b O'Grady, Sean (28 March 2009). "Mervyn King: At the top of his game". The Independent. London, UK. Archived from the original on 12 May 2022. Retrieved 5 April 2010.
  4. ^ a b Wighton, David (12 March 2012). "The trouble we're in and how to get out of it". The Times. Retrieved 12 March 2012.
  5. ^ a b c Bank of England profile Archived 2 December 2010 at the Wayback Machine; accessed 2 March 2011.
  6. ^ Blakemore, Chris (21 October 2011). "Wolverhampton Grammar School celebrates 500 years". BBC News. Retrieved 14 February 2012.
  7. ^ Profile, keynessociety.wordpress.com; accessed 30- March 2015.
  8. ^ a b c d e "Interview with Lord Mervyn King". Interviews with Max Raskin. Retrieved 22 March 2023.
  9. ^ Flanders, Stephanie (13 March 2006). "Were 364 economists all wrong?". Newsnight. BBC. Retrieved 7 February 2012.
  10. ^ King, Stephen (7 February 2012). "We can't reboot the economy without sacrifice". The Times. Retrieved 7 February 2012. Until the latest episode, the UK's deepest postwar downswing was in the early 1980s. Despite the concerns of 364 economists—including Mervyn King, now the Governor of the Bank of England—who wrote in 1981 to The Times to argue that we were doomed, the British economy staged an impressive rebound.
  11. ^ Low, Valentine (25 March 2009). "Queen invites Mervyn King, Bank of EnglandGovernor, to palace". The Times. Retrieved 13 March 2012.
  12. ^ Stewart, Heather (30 September 2011). "£50 reward for industrial revolution pioneers on new bank note". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 22 March 2023.
  13. ^ a b King, Mervyn (2004). "Comments on 'Risk and Uncertainty in Monetary Policy' by Alan Greenspan, AEA Annual Conference, 2004" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 February 2012. Retrieved 30 March 2015.
  14. ^ Barrell, Ray; Kirby, Simon; Riley, Rebecca (2004). "The Current Position of UK House Prices". National Institute Economic Review. NIESR. 189 (1): 57–60. doi:10.1177/002795010418900105. S2CID 153415934.
  15. ^ OECD (2005). "III. Recent House Price Developments: The Role of Fundamentals" (PDF). OECD Economic Outlook 78. Retrieved 19 February 2011.
  16. ^ King, Mervyn (20 January 2004). "Speech to the Annual Birmingham Forward/CBI Business Luncheon" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 January 2011. Retrieved 8 March 2011.
  17. ^ King, Mervyn (14 June 2004). "Speech to the CBI Scotland Dinner at the Glasgow Hilton Hotel" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 January 2011. Retrieved 8 March 2011.
  18. ^ "The global housing boom: In come the waves". The Economist. 16 June 2005. Retrieved 8 March 2011. According to estimates by The Economist, the total value of residential property in developed economies rose by more than $30 trillion over the past five years, to over $70 trillion, an increase equivalent to 100% of those countries' combined GDPs. Not only does this dwarf any previous house-price boom, it is larger than the global stockmarket bubble in the late 1990s (an increase over five years of 80% of GDP) or America's stockmarket bubble in the late 1920s (55% of GDP). In other words, it looks like the biggest bubble in history
  19. ^ Reinhart, Carmen M.; Rogoff, Kenneth S. (2009). This Time is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly. New Jersey: Princeton University Press. p. 160 (see table 10.8). ISBN 978-0-691-14216-6.
  20. ^ Duncan, Gary (18 October 2007). "UK house market is 'heading for crash'". The Times. London. Retrieved 18 February 2011.
  21. ^ OECD (2011). "Chapter 4. Housing and the Economy: Policies for Renovation" (PDF). Economic Policy Reforms 2011: Going for Growth. Part II. Retrieved 8 March 2011.
  22. ^ Baker, Dean (11 February 2010). "David Ignatius: Mervyn King Is Not Only an Incompetent Central Banker, He Also is a Bad Teacher". The American Prospect. Retrieved 9 December 2011.
  23. ^ Davies, Howard (23 June 2011). "Chinese Finance Comes of Age". Finance in the 21st Century. Project Syndicate. The authorities in Beijing, especially the CBRC and the People's Bank of China (the real central bank), have a good record of managing incipient booms and busts. . . . They have considerable flexibility, owing to a range of policy tools, including variable capital and reserve requirements and direct controls on mortgage lending terms. They have already been tightening the screws on credit growth for several months, with positive effects.
  24. ^ Rabinovitch, Simon (18 November 2011). "Housing prices fall in Chinese cities". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 10 December 2022. Retrieved 24 January 2012. Housing prices in a growing number of Chinese cities fell last month, weighed down by a sustained government campaign to deflate the market.
  25. ^ Bloomberg News (21 November 2011). "China Real Estate at 'Tipping Point': Nomura". Bloomberg. Retrieved 28 March 2012. Premier Wen Jiabao said this month that the government won't relax property curbs. The government this year raised down-payment and mortgage requirements and imposed home purchase restrictions in about 40 cities to avert a bubble. The central bank increased interest rates three times and reserves ratio six times this year.
  26. ^ Lex (28 December 2011). "China property". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 10 December 2022. Retrieved 8 February 2012. China's authorities have spent much of the past two years trying to engineer a slowdown in property prices. Now they have got one ... [P]roperty has dropped down the list of top investment options for Chinese households[.] . . . That is what the Politburo wants to see.
  27. ^ "China not to loosen regulations on housing market: premier". Xinhua News Agency. 14 March 2012. Archived from the original on 24 March 2012. Retrieved 28 March 2012. Premier Wen Jiabao said [China] will not slacken its efforts in regulating housing prices, which he considered still 'far from a reasonable level. If we develop the housing market blindly, a bubble will emerge in the housing sector. When the bubble bursts, not only the housing market will be affected, it will weigh on the entire Chinese economy'.
  28. ^ Wighton, David (12 March 2012). "The trouble we're in and how to get out of it". The Times. Retrieved 12 March 2012. Sushil Wadhwani, a former MPC member, says the committee could have warned that interest rates would, in future, be set higher than justified by the two-year inflation forecast, which would have dampened house prices. Australia followed just such a strategy.
  29. ^ Bernanke, Ben S.; Laubach, Thomas (2001) [1998]. Inflation Targeting: Lessons from the International Experience (new ed.). New Jersey: Princeton University Press. p. 147. ISBN 978-0-691-08689-7.
  30. ^ a b King, Mervyn (17 June 2009). "Speech at the Lord Mayor's Banquet for Bankers and Merchants of the City of London at the Mansion House" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 February 2012. Retrieved 14 March 2012.
  31. ^ Chu, Ben (23 January 2012). "Osborne set to back Sir Mervyn in bitter battle over Bank rules". The Independent. Archived from the original on 12 May 2022. Retrieved 24 January 2012.
  32. ^ a b Blanchflower, David (18 April 2012). "Mervyn King is a tyrant, but who will succeed him at the Bank?". New Statesman. Retrieved 21 April 2012.
  33. ^ a b Jones, Claire (23 January 2012). "Records of Bank policy meetings destroyed". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 10 December 2022. Retrieved 24 January 2012.
  34. ^ a b Hilsenrath, Jon; DiLeo, Luca; Derby, Michael S. (13 January 2012). "Little Alarm Shown at Fed at Dawn of Housing Bust". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 24 January 2012.
  35. ^ "Lessons of the 1930s: There could be trouble ahead". The Economist. 10 December 2011. Retrieved 7 February 2012.
  36. ^ Carvalho, Carlos; Eusepi, Stefano; Grisse, Christian (2012). "Policy Initiatives in the Global Recession: What Did Forecasters Expect?" (PDF). Current Issues in Economics and Finance. Reserve Bank of New York. 18 (2). Retrieved 5 April 2012.
  37. ^ Elliot, Larry (3 February 2012). "Who to blame for the Great Recession? So many big names are in the frame". The Guardian. Retrieved 16 February 2012.
  38. ^ "Statistical Interactive Database – official Bank Rate history". Bank of England. Retrieved 16 February 2012.
  39. ^ Parkinson, Justin (15 September 2010). "We let it slip, Bank governor Mervyn King tells unions". BBC News. Retrieved 13 February 2012.
  40. ^ a b Seager, Ashley; Treanor, Jill (21 October 2009). "Mervyn King launches blistering attack on £1tn banks bailout". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 February 2012.
  41. ^ Moore, Charles (5 March 2011). "We prevented a Great Depression... but people have the right to be angry". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 5 May 2013. Retrieved 5 March 2011.
  42. ^ a b Wighton, David (12 March 2012). "Sir Mervyn King: banks still in denial over failures". The Times. Retrieved 12 March 2012.
  43. ^ a b c Wighton, David (14 March 2012). "The night that King's speech left Labour lost for words". The Times. Retrieved 14 March 2012.
  44. ^ "Warning over 'real' anger at banks in Britain". The Independent. Press Association. 12 March 2012. Archived from the original on 12 May 2022. Retrieved 12 March 2012.
  45. ^ Skidelsky, Robert (3 October 2011). "Back from the Brink". New Statesman. Archived from the original on 23 November 2011. Retrieved 17 October 2011. [T]here were runs on the retail banks in 1914.
  46. ^ "Mervyn King interview with the BBC's Robert Peston: full transcript". The Guardian. London. 6 November 2007. Retrieved 17 February 2010.
  47. ^ Oakeshott, Isabel (4 September 2011). "Brown said world's worst financial crisis would last only six months". The Sunday Times. Archived from the original on 18 March 2014. Retrieved 14 February 2012.
  48. ^ a b c Cohen, Norma; Giles, Chris; Pimlott, Daniel (9 November 2010). "Concern that King 'blurs line' on policy". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 10 December 2022. Retrieved 13 February 2011.
  49. ^ Giles, Chris (13 May 2010). "King backs plans to cut deficit". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 10 December 2022. Retrieved 14 February 2011.
  50. ^ a b Barker, Alex (25 November 2010). "Mervyn King's "excessively political" interventions" (blog). Financial Times. Retrieved 8 December 2010.
  51. ^ "King cannot be the coalition's courtier". Financial Times. 10 November 2010. Archived from the original on 10 December 2022. Retrieved 8 December 2010.
  52. ^ Cohen, Norma; Pimlott, Daniel; Giles, Chris; Parker, George (25 November 2010). "Bank of England divisions are laid bare". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 10 December 2022. Retrieved 14 February 2011.
  53. ^ Wintour, Patrick (30 November 2010). "WikiLeaks cables: Mervyn King had doubts over Cameron and Osborne". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 8 December 2010.
  54. ^ Toynbee, Polly (1 December 2010). "WikiLeaks: Mervyn King is consistently wrong: now his hawkish dogma has been exposed". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 8 December 2010.
  55. ^ Wintour, Patrick (7 December 2010). "Mervyn King asked to face Commons committee over role in coalition talks". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 8 December 2010.
  56. ^ Political and Constitutional Reform Committee (20 January 2011). "Written evidence submitted by Mervyn King, Governor, of the Bank of England.". Fourth Report: Lessons from the process of Government formation after the 2010 General Election. Retrieved 13 February 2011.
  57. ^ Political and Constitutional Reform Committee (20 January 2011). Fourth Report: Lessons from the process of Government formation after the 2010 General Election. Retrieved 13 February 2011.
  58. ^ "Examination of Witness (Question number 1-36): Rt Hon David Laws". Lessons from the process of Government formation after the 2010 General Election. Political and Constitutional Reform Committee. 14 October 2010. Retrieved 25 April 2012. See Q20 and Q21 plus answers.
  59. ^ Inman, Phillip (3 May 2012). "Mervyn King backs coalition's economic policies". The Guardian. Retrieved 4 May 2012.
  60. ^ Andrews, Amanda (3 May 2011). "Bank of England Governor Mervyn King warns on interest rate rise". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 3 May 2011.
  61. ^ Jones, Claire (2 September 2011). "Bank governor undermines Project Merlin". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 10 December 2022. Retrieved 28 March 2012.
  62. ^ BEO Governor: "No More Stimulus", optionarmageddon.ml-implode.com; accessed 30 March 2015.
  63. ^ For King's previous position see King, Mervyn (16 June 2004). "Speech at the Lord Mayor's Banquet for Bankers and Merchants of the City of London at the Mansion House" (PDF). p. 4. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 December 2010. Retrieved 10 March 2011. [T]he Bank of England Act 1998 and the associated Memorandum of Understanding between the Bank, Treasury and FSA on financial stability . . . [f]reed [the Bank] from the responsibilities of day-to-day regulation, [meaning] the Bank has been able to focus on two principal objectives: maintaining monetary stability and maintaining financial stability. Those objectives are the essence of central banking.
  64. ^ "King and Darling clash on banks". BBC News. 18 June 2009. Retrieved 14 February 2011. [T]he governor had, at one point, been opposed to the idea of the Bank becoming a super-regulator.
  65. ^ "Governor seeks more bank powers". BBC News. 18 June 2009. Retrieved 5 April 2010.
  66. ^ Carrington, Damian (19 January 2012). "Fossil fuels are sub-prime assets, Bank of England governor warned". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 January 2012.
  67. ^ Caldecott, Ben; Leaton, James (6 February 2012). "Carbon bubble: Bank of England's opportunity to tackle market failure". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 March 2012.
  68. ^ Blackden, Richard (25 March 2012). "Sir Mervyn King says new financial stability tools are 'an experiment'". The Sunday Telegraph. Retrieved 26 March 2012.
  69. ^ "UK should leave EU with no deal, says former Bank of England governor". The Guardian. 29 March 2019. Retrieved 22 October 2019.
  70. ^ "Friday's gossip column". BBC News. 14 July 2006. Retrieved 5 April 2010.
  71. ^ "David Bernstein and Lord King resign from Aston Villa board", BBC Sport, 18 April 2016
  72. ^ "AV 150: Honorary Board Announced". Aston Villa Football Club. 25 January 2024. Retrieved 25 January 2024.
  73. ^ "Lord King to become Worcestershire's new president". BBC News. 12 November 2014. Retrieved 13 January 2015.
  74. ^ "Sir Mervyn King to receive honorary degree". Archived from the original on 12 June 2018. Retrieved 12 June 2018.
  75. ^ Nuffield College, Oxford website Archived 27 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine; accessed 30 March 2015.
  76. ^ King listed as eleventh most influential person in the Financial Centres International top 500 Archived 28 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine, stikeman.com; accessed 30 March 2015.
  77. ^ "No. 59808". The London Gazette (Supplement). 11 June 2011. p. 7.
  78. ^ "Queen's birthday honours list: Knights". The Guardian. London, UK. 11 June 2011. Retrieved 11 June 2011.
  79. ^ "No. 60848". The London Gazette. 24 April 2014. p. 8182.
  80. ^ "Mervyn King enters House of Lords". 22 July 2013. Retrieved 30 March 2015.
  81. ^ "No. 60578". The London Gazette. 24 July 2013. p. 14591.
  82. ^ "No. 61470". The London Gazette. 13 January 2016. p. 546.
  83. ^ King, Mervyn (2020). "Radical Uncertainty: Decision-Making Beyond Numbers, with Mervyn King and John Kay". Retrieved 13 November 2020.

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Business positions Preceded byEdward George Governor of the Bank of England 2003–2013 Succeeded byMark Carney Orders of precedence in the United Kingdom Preceded byThe Lord Livingston of Parkhead GentlemenBaron King of Lothbury Followed byThe Lord Horam
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