Today was the first of three days to be dedicated to double checking the FSR charts, and I had been looking forward to doing something not related to FMIs. Just as I returned from the Monday morning meeting, I was met with some uneasy commotion in the RA pod. Both Hongyu and Keith were a little hysterical, and Hongyu immediately asked me if I had read my email. I was in a meeting, so of course I had no access to email, and I told them as such. They then urged me to check it apprehensively.
Still mentally preparing myself for the FSR, I didn't think much of it at first, but I was shell shocked when I read the Info byte.
The Governor will resign from his role at the Bank of Canada to accept a new role as the governor at the Bank of England.
It was such a bolt from the blue, I couldn't help express my incredulity.
I was pretty sure he denied it back when the rumour first came out. The three of us began discussing at once. How can he do this? What will happen to the new international financial policy division formed solely to serve the governor's role as the chair of the FSB? He wasn't even British!
I immediately fired up an incognito chrome window and fb messaged Usher who was in class at UMich. He was the only person outside of the Bank that I could think of that would appreciate the magnitude and impact of the announcement. He was equally shell shocked.
Keith and Hongyu began scourging CBC and BBC for news, but nothing showed up until half an hour later. Further details didn't show up until later in the evening.
Apparently, Mervyn King flew the governor in to London 8 days ago to make a final attempt to recruit him. Aside from the favourable pay, they also agreed to coincide his term as the governor of the BOE with his term as the chair of the FSB.
Usher and a lot of other people felt that he had betrayed the Bank, but I feel differently. I won't blame him for wanting to leave Ottawa, especially when everyone knows that the city will be a frozen tundra for the next 6 months. Not to mention the prestige that comes with the job offer. If he takes the job, he would be the first non-British citizen to head the Bank of England, one of the oldest central banks in the world (circa 1664). It would also mean that he would be the most powerful non-elected person in the UK. The market also had so much fate in him that the GBP appreciated dramatically against the CAD after the announcement was made.
Canada is also not so much of a challenge for such a capable leader. I truly wish him all the best in London.
Better still if he would offer me a job at the BOE too. ;)
No comments:
Post a Comment