Bump, says the Bank
A NASTY bump next year, followed by a period of convalescence. The Bank of Eng- land's idea of what is in store for the British economy agrees, I am flattered to find, with my own. It does not exactly disagree with the forecasts in the Chancellor's budgette, but the Bank is, ex officio, gloomier. Last week it came bouncing out and cut interest rates by a full 1/2 per cent, which by its own standards was bold, and set the City won- dering what kind of grim secret the Old Lady knew that the rest of us didn't. She might prefer to say, with Winston Churchill, that her mind is subject to a har- monious process of change in accordance with the course of events. Professor Charles Goodhart says that he and his colleagues on the Monetary Policy Committee would come to better decisions if they changed their minds four times as often.
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