The chancellor's announcement to put an end to joblessness surprised many observers until we read the small print
Who will guard the guards?, asked the Roman poet Juvenal. (Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?) The perennial question raises its head once again as a result of a remarkable public intervention by the chancellor of the exchequer last week.
The background needs some explanation. When Gordon Brown became chancellor in 1997, he gave the Bank of England responsibility for setting interest rates but punished the Old Lady for its sporadically lax supervision of banks over the years: that responsibility was transferred to the Financial Services Authority.
Continue reading...