Mervyn King

One of the United Kingdom’s most revered civil servants, Lord Mervyn King served as Governor of the Bank of England from 2003 to 2013. He was concurrently chairman of its Monetary Policy Committee and Chairman of the group of major central banks at the Bank for International Settlements.

Lord King’s appointment was the culmination a 22-year career at the Bank. He previously served as deputy governor, chief economist and executive and non-executive director. In 2008 he led the Bank’s policy response to the gravest economic crisis since the 1930s. Lord King joined other central bankers in cutting interest rates to almost zero in actions that staved off a similarly great depression.

Always an independent voice, Lord King was critical of bank bailouts. He warned that saving banks from the consequences of their own mistakes created a moral hazard. And since leaving office, Lord King has often taken a contrary view to his contemporaries in his public policy pronouncements. He was sanguine about Brexit and, as negotiations reached an impasse in 2019, advocated for a no-deal exit. With prudent planning, he argued the long-term economic consequences of leaving without a deal would be similar to staying in the bloc.

More recently, Lord King has blamed “groupthink” for the emergence of inflation in 2022. He criticised the lack of dissenting voices willing to question the mainstream opinion that the phenomenon was transitory. And he believes the Bank now lacks foresight in anticipating its end. The same signals that pointed to higher inflation indicate sharp drops in price growth. Lord King believes the Bank consequently risks pushing the United Kingdom into recession with high interest rates.

An acute and autonomous speaker on the markets, Lord King is also a life peer, academic and author. He is Alan Greenspan Professor of Economics and Professor of Law at New York University and Emeritus Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics. His 2016 book The End of Alchemy was praised as a “sophisticated and highly approachable study of how modern finance has lost its way” by the late Henry Kissinger.