Bank of England: The crew is restless

Aristotle said that one mark of a successful democracy was the ability of leaders to obey the majority without complaint. By the standard of the Greek philosopher, Mervyn King is an ideal citizen of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England. For the first time in the MPC’s eight-year history, the governor was on the losing side of a vote on interest rates. King, along with all but one of the bank’s insiders, voted in July to keep rates steady at 4.75%. The four outside members all wen...