Mark Carney, the governor of the Bank of England, surprised friend and foe by openly criticising financial capitalism at a conference on inclusive capitalism on May 27th. Mr Carney, like many central bankers that were cornered into bailing out banks, acknowledges that the financial sector bears a large part of the responsibility for the financial crisis and is frustrated at the fact that central banks had no choice but to inflict financial repression on savers in order to avoid an even greater economic disaster.
In his speech, he aligns himself somewhat with some of the demands listed in the BETTER FINANCE Manifesto and insists that financial capitalism should never be an end in itself but rather serve the real economy. He’s also critical of high-frequency trading, stating that equity markets favoured “the technologically empowered over the retail investor”.
Perhaps the most striking parallel with the BETTER FINANCE Manifesto conference occurred when Mr Carney remarked that banks operate “in a privileged heads-I-win-tails-you-lose bubble”, hereby reiterating Philippe Lamberts’ (Green MEP) call for banks to take responsibility for their actions: “If financial institutions want to play casino… fine. But the discipline of the casino is «heads you win, tails you lose». You lose. Not someone else, not taxpayers. You!”
The Economist article