Should the Bank of England be independent? Andy Haldane and Daniela Gabor

One of Gordon Brown's first acts as chancellor in 1997 was to give the Bank of England 'operational responsibility for setting interest rates'. For many years this rarely attracted any discussion, but in more recent times, as prices have risen and the economic outlook darkened, the role of the Bank of England in not only controlling inflation but also influencing the economy in other ways through actions such as quantitative easing has raised more and more questions about what central bank 'neutrality' really means.

In this extract from On Politics, James is joined by former Bank of England chief economist Andy Haldane and Daniela Gabor, professor of economics at SOAS, to assess the actions of the Bank of England since 1997 and whether it should continue to be independent.

Listen to the full episode:

Apple Podcasts: https://lrb.me/opep4appleyt
Spotify: https://lrb.me/opep4spotifyyt
LRB website: https://lrb.me/opep4lrbwebyt

ABOUT THE LRB

The LRB is Europe’s leading magazine of books and ideas. Published twice a month, it provides a space for some of the world’s best writers to explore a wide variety of subjects in exhilarating detail – from culture and politics to science and technology via history and philosophy. In the age of the long read, the LRB remains the pre-eminent exponent of the intellectual essay, admired around the world for its fearlessness, its range and its elegance.

As well as essays and book reviews each issue also contains poems, an exhibition review, ‘short cuts’, letters and a diary, and is available in print, online, and offline via our app. Subscribers enjoy unlimited access to almost 15,000 articles in our digital archive. Our website features a regular blog and a channel of audio and video content, including podcasts, author interviews and highlights from the events programme at the London Review Bookshop.