Mervyn King (economist)
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Mervyn Allister King (born March 30, 1948) is Governor of the Bank of England. He succeeded Sir Edward George on June 30, 2003.
King studied at Wolverhampton Grammar School, King's College, Cambridge (gaining a first class degree in economics in 1969), St John's College, Cambridge, and Harvard; he then taught at the University of Cambridge and the University of Birmingham. He has also been Visiting Professor to Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. From October 1984 he was Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics.
King joined the Bank in March 1991 as Chief Economist and Executive Director, having been 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 influential Washington-based financial advisory body, the Group of Thirty.
An ex-officio member of the Bank's interest-rate setting Monetary Policy Committee since its inception in 1997, he is the only person to have taken part in every one of its monthly meetings to date. His voting style is often seen as "hawkish". Before becoming Governor, he regularly voted for tighter monetary policy than his colleagues. That pattern has continued in a more muted way as Governor: most notably, he was outvoted opposing the MPC's August 2005 interest rate cut, and in June 2007 was in the minority by voting for higher rates. King's willingness on occasion to take a minority position is unusual among central bank leaders.
King is noted for his often-repeated ambition to make monetary policy "boring", by which he means that it should be as predictable as possible by continually focusing on achieving a set inflation target. The term "inflation nutter" was also coined in a paper by King.
King is a fan of Aston Villa F.C., and arranged a game between Bank of England employees and ex-Villa players.[1] He also briefly found himself commentating on an Ashes test match for BBC radio Five Live in 2005, whilst being interviewed by Simon Mayo.
Cambridge University awarded him an honorary Doctorate in Law in 2006. He is a Visiting Fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford.
[edit] References
| The Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee |  |
|
|---|---|---|
| Governor: Sir Edward George (June 1997–June 2003) | ||
| June 1997-July 1997: | George | Davies | King | Buiter | Goodhart | Plenderleith | |
| August 1997: | George | King | Buiter | Goodhart | Plenderleith | |
| September 1997-November 1997: | George | King | Buiter | Goodhart | Plenderleith | Clementi | Julius | |
| December 1997-May 1998: | George | King | Buiter | Goodhart | Plenderleith | Clementi | Julius | Budd | |
| June 1998-May 1999: | George | King | Buiter | Goodhart | Plenderleith | Clementi | Julius | Budd | Vickers | |
| June 1999-May 2000: | George | King | Buiter | Goodhart | Plenderleith | Clementi | Julius | Vickers | Wadhwani | |
| June 2000-September 2000: | George | King | Plenderleith | Clementi | Julius | Vickers | Wadhwani | Allsopp | Nickell | |
| October 2000-May 2001: | George | King | Plenderleith | Clementi | Julius | Wadhwani | Allsopp | Nickell | Bean | |
| June 2001-May 2002: | George | King | Plenderleith | Clementi | Wadhwani | Allsopp | Nickell | Bean | Barker | |
| June 2002: | George | King | Clementi | Allsopp | Nickell | Bean | Barker | Tucker | |
| July 2002-August 2002: | George | King | Clementi | Allsopp | Nickell | Bean | Barker | Tucker | Bell | |
| September 2002: | George | King | Allsopp | Nickell | Bean | Barker | Tucker | Bell | |
| October 2002-May 2003: | George | King | Allsopp | Nickell | Bean | Barker | Tucker | Bell | Large | |
| June 2003: | George | King | Nickell | Bean | Barker | Tucker | Bell | Large | Lambert | |
| Governor: Mervyn King (June 2003–present) | ||
| July 2003-June 2005: | King | Nickell | Bean | Barker | Tucker | Bell | Large | Lambert | Lomax | |
| July 2005-January 2006: | King | Nickell | Bean | Barker | Tucker | Large | Lambert | Lomax | Walton | |
| February 2006-March 2006: | King | Nickell | Bean | Barker | Tucker | Lambert | Lomax | Walton | Gieve | |
| April 2006-May 2006: | King | Nickell | Bean | Barker | Tucker | Lomax | Walton | Gieve | |
| June 2006: | King | Bean | Barker | Tucker | Lomax | Walton | Gieve | Blanchflower | |
| July-August 2006: | King | Bean | Barker | Tucker | Lomax | Gieve | Blanchflower | |
