The Flemming succession
A vacancy on the Court of the Bank of England. The economics director, John Flemming, is off down the road to join Jacques Attali at the new European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. From an outfit showing fattipuff tenden- cies, this is a reassuringly thinnifer appoint- ment. There is no obvious successor among the Bank's own economists. Among the City's, Professor Tim Congdon at Gerrard & National is the forecaster whose ante- post bets, first on inflation, then on reces- sion, are coming home. The Bank, which wants to be responsible for the value of our money, could usefully choose an economist who believes, as he does, that money matters. The catch is that, like other monetarists, he does not believe in the joys of closer monetary union in Europe, and that might conflict with the Bank's party line. The neatest solution would be to give the Court place not to an economist, but to Pen Kent, the associate director who looks after industrial finance — meaning, at the moment, anxious banks and desperate companies. If that suggested that the Bank now finds industry more interesting than economics, the Bank could be right.
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