Mark Carney is leaving Canada with some parting advice

By The Canadian Press - Tuesday, May 21, 2013 at 2:16 PM - 0 Comments

OTTAWA – Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney is leaving Canada with some parting advice — seize the country’s natural advantages.

The central banker said Tuesday in his last scheduled public appearance before departing for the Bank of England next month that Canada can coast and wait out the decade-long damage-repair process in the rest of the G7 economies, or build on its strengths for the emerging new global economy.

Carney said the Canadian government is correct in seeking out new trade deals, particularly in emerging economies, because they represent one half of the world’s imports growth and also are essential to securing a position in global supply chains.

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Carney has left Poloz with little to fight slow growth

By Chris Sorensen - Friday, May 10, 2013 at 5:40 PM - 0 Comments

(Adrian Wyld/CP)

Outgoing Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney’s stick-handling of the 2008 financial crisis was widely viewed as a central-banking success story; it helped him snare his new gig as governor of the Bank of England, starting on July 1. But in many ways, Carney’s replacement, Stephen Poloz, the head of Export Development Canada, has an even more vexing task in front of him. Whereas Carney moved swiftly but predictably to drop benchmark interest rates when faced with the global financial crisis (and, somewhat less predic ably, announced he intended to keep them there for an extended period), Poloz faces several smaller, but no less troublesome threats: an overheated housing market, soaring personal debt, stubborn unemployment and anemic GDP growth. And they come at a time when conventional monetary policy has far less influence, given that money has been so cheap, for so long.

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10 things you should know about the new Bank of Canada governor

By Tamsin McMahon - Thursday, May 2, 2013 at 7:08 PM - 0 Comments

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty has named Stephen Poloz the next governor of the Bank of Canada. The announcement shocked analysts who had thought that long-serving senior deputy governor Tiff Macklem was a front-runner. Poloz, head of the federal trade agency Export Development Canada, has a low profile in financial circles.

Here’s a primer on who he is and what he might bring to the job:

1. He is 57 and married to Valerie Poloz. The couple has two children.

2. He spent 14 years at the Bank of Canada, rising to chief researcher, before being appointed chief economist at Export Development Canada in 1999. He is currently the agency’s CEO.

3. During the 1990s, he was managing editor of the Montreal-based International Bank Credit Analyst, an influential financial publication that long warned against jumping into frothy, dot-com fuelled stock-market bubble before it burst.

4. He has also been a visiting scholar at the International Monetary Fund and the Economic Planning Agency in Tokyo.

5. He was previously rumoured to be on the short-list of candidates to replace David Dodge as Bank of Canada governor in 2008.

6. He warned early on of a potential for a major financial crash:

In 1998, after Long-Term Capital Management went bust, requiring a $3.6-billion U.S. government bailout, some analysts shrugged off the episode as the workings of a rogue hedge fund. Poloz was among those who predicted the fund’s failure was more likely a sign of a financial system that was working itself into a bubble built on complex and opaque derivatives, which would eventually require more bailouts. “I think there will be lots more” fund failures, he predicted in 1998.

7. … and then got it wrong after it happened.

In 2007, Poloz predicted the financial crisis would be short-lived. “A key source of comfort during the financial turmoil of recent weeks has been the consensus that the world economy remains strong,” he wrote in an analysis. “This is important, for it means that even if the financial contagion continues to spread, the world economy will prove resilient to the shock.”

8. He helped set the framework for Bank of Canada policies largely seen as successful in helping Canada stave off the worst of the global recession.

In 1994, while still at the Bank of Canada he co-authored a paper describing in detail the central bank’s approach to its medium-term forecasting. It may sound dull, but the paper was a critical step in the bank’s sweeping shift away from clandestine operations and toward more transparency in how it sets monetary policy.

It’s an approach strongly supported by outgoing governor Mark Carney and one that he has signaled he’s bringing to the Bank of England. Carney is a vocal a proponent of more communication and forward guidance from central bankers — signaling to investors where interest rates will likely be headed in the future —arguing that it can be calming on the markets and perhaps induce consumers to adjust their spending.

9. He disagrees with Carney on a few key issues.

Unlike Carney, who has criticized Canadian corporations for sitting on “dead money” instead of investing, Poloz warned in a 2011 speech that the stockpiles of cash were a “necessary insurance against the next black swan” in an era of deep uncertainty about the future of both the Canadians and the global economy.

Carney has also openly dismissed the “Dutch Disease” argument that Canada’s high “petrodollar” is harming the manufacturing economy. Poloz, on the other hand, has publicly warned that the rising Canadian dollar was harming the economy, mainly because it exacerbated the widening gulf between Eastern manufacturing-based economies and Western commodity-based ones.

He has cautioned that such economic divergence would become a long-standing problem in Canada and that similar conditions in the 1970s had led to “stagflation” when inflation rises rapidly but economic growth stalls.

“This two-speed economy thing is enormous,” he told a 2008 conference on how energy industry affects the economy, arguing that the Bank of Canada should pay more attention to the dollar’s exchange rate when setting interest rates.

10. Perhaps he’s so vocal because he initially got it so wrong when it came to the dollar:

In spring 2007, Poloz proclaimed that the Canadian dollar, then sitting at 94 cents, would fall to 84 cents U.S. by the end of the year because the weak U.S. and global economy would hurt demand for Canadian exports. “There is a global slowdown that is grinding through the system, and oil prices are probably going to drift lower rather than higher, and in that context you get the Canadian dollar going down not up.”

Instead, the dollar hit a high of $1.08 in November. It took roughly two years for his prediction to come true — the dollar dropped in 2009 — though the loonie has been stubbornly sitting around par since 2010, thanks largely to strong oil prices.

Some analysts rushed to describe Poloz as an “outsider” whose appointment signals a morale crisis at the Bank of Canada and a push by the Harper Conservatives for more control over monetary policy. Indeed, the Canadian dollar fell on news of his appointment. But Poloz could also be viewed as one of Harvard Business School professor Joseph L. Bower’s “inside outsiders” — the kind of leader who has both deep institutional experience and knowledge, but not so much that he’s become part of the establishment.

A good example of such a leader, according to the Harvard Business Review? Mark Carney.

Mark Carney’s legacy, in his own words

By Erica Alini - Wednesday, May 1, 2013 at 10:50 PM - 0 Comments

(Chris Wattie/Reuters)

Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney has 30 more days on the job, and he is determined to avoid the question that every journalist and MP would love to get him to answer: What does he think his legacy is? He dodged it at his last hearing before the Finance Committee last week, and aptly deflected it again this evening in Edmonton, where he was speaking at the University of Alberta: “I’m a member of a team, the Governing Council of the Bank of Canada,” he quipped, “if my legacy turns out to be bad, I’m taking them down with me.”

But the governor took Wednesday’s lecture as an opportunity to look back at the “fascinating, sometimes harrowing” five years he’s spent at the helm of Canada’s central bank—and in that sense he delivered the closest thing to an assessment of his own legacy that we’ll get from him for quite some time. Here’s the gist of it:

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Mark Carney’s legacy, and what it means for his successor

By Stephen Gordon - Wednesday, May 1, 2013 at 12:17 PM - 0 Comments

(Fred Chartrand/CP)

Going into the economic and financial crisis of 2008-09, Mark Carney had several advantages that most other central bankers did not:

• The Bank of Canada had accumulated a not-inconsiderable amount of institutional credibility after almost twenty successful years of inflation targeting.
• Canada’s banking system was highly regulated and more than solid enough to withstand the crisis.
• The housing sector was still in a position to respond to lower interest rates.
• Commodity prices bounced back rapidly a few months after the financial crisis hit.

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Mark Carney’s last stand (before the finance committee)

By Erica Alini - Tuesday, April 23, 2013 at 12:49 PM - 0 Comments

(Fred Chartrand/CP)

When asked about how much debt is too much for a Canadian family, Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney politely declined to go into the details. Appropriate levels of red ink on private balance sheets depend on a number of factors, and the central bank isn’t in the business of personal finance consulting. The BoC does, though, have a benchmark red line after which—regardless of income level, job security and age profile—it believes anyone starts struggling. That’s when debt servicing costs rise over 40 per cent of after-tax income, the governor said at this morning’s hearing before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance, his last such appearance as this country’s central banker.

Concerns about high levels of household debt have been a leitmotif of the governor’s tenure, and it looks like that will continue to be the case for his successor. Once keeping up with your debt repayments takes up nearly half of your net income, Carney continued, “there isn’t much margin for error.” If your shifts are reduced—let alone if you lose your job—chances are, you’re defaulting. Right now, eight per cent of indebted households are in such dire straits, the governor said. A spike in unemployment (caused by, say, a slowdown in global growth triggered by another crisis in Europe) could bring that number of “vulnerable” households up to ten per cent. And if the shock is big enough, it can hit the housing market as well, the governor warned his audience. None of that, however, is looming on the horizon, he added—just a scary story central bankers have to include in their modeling exercises, for now. Housing prices are firming up and household debt, which is mostly backed by assets, has been growing at slower and slower rates. It too should stabilize shortly.

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Carney: Household debt, if untamed, could warrant higher interest rates sooner

By Erica Alini - Thursday, April 18, 2013 at 3:38 PM - 0 Comments

(Chris Wattie/Reuters)

Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney is in Washington D.C. today, where he found the time for a televised chat with reporters hosted by Reuters. Here are some of the most interesting bits:

Expect a rate hike if Canada’s household debt can’t be tamed otherwise. Also, the housing market slump will ideally last two years:

The governor said appeared satisfied with developments in the household sector: consumer debt has slowed “quite nicely.” However, he added, the BoC might hike up interest rates “sooner” if the issue of Canadians’ overstretched wallets isn’t addressed “in a timely way.”

Carney also noted that the housing market, the major driver of Canada’s household debt spree, is “moving in the right direction,” with prices “adjusting” and the pace of new residential construction slowing. The real estate and consumer debt cool-down, he added, is “an adjustment that best takes place over a couple of years.”

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And now a word from Diana Carney

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, April 17, 2013 at 11:40 AM - 0 Comments

Ahead of a forum in Ottawa tonight on carbon pricing, Diana Carney—wife of the Bank of Canada governor—considers the state of debate in Canada.

The most immediate concern is, then, that the current approach will fall significantly short of yielding the reductions required to meet Canada’s stated target (17% below 2005 levels by 2020). Indeed, there is presently no basis for a serious claim that we will meet our Copenhagen commitment. Current Environment Canada projections are for a 113 megatonnes shortfall in reduction by 2020 (that is assuming that all the measures and regulations that governments across Canada are putting in place have the desired effect). That would mean that we will have succeeded in reducing emissions compared to 2005 levels by only 20 megatonnes or less than 3%.15 No government could be proud of such ‘achievement’.

Unfortunately, constructive dialogue on how we might reduce the gap has ceased, and name-calling has taken its place. Carbon pricing of any type is characterized as a ‘tax on everything’. This serves neither the goals of the government nor the well-being of Canadians, particularly since it is far from clear that the targets to which we are committed are adequate for the long term.

Grant Bishop adds his thoughts. Among the panel participants will be Bob Inglis, the former Republican congressman.

Lawrence Summers on Keystone, Mark Carney and lessons from financial crises

By Jana Juginovic - Monday, April 1, 2013 at 2:36 PM - 0 Comments

Lawrence H. "Larry" Summers, former U.S. Treasury Secretary speaks at the London School of Economics in London, U.K., on Monday, March 25, 2013. (Jason Alden/Bloomberg).

For the first time since the 2007 financial crisis, investors pushed the Standard & Poor’s 500 index into record territory before closing for the Easter weekend. U.S. stocks have rebounded despite vulnerabilities in Europe and the slow pace of the U.S. economic recovery. While investors are riding a wave, many are wondering why it is taking so long for economic output, consumer demand and employment to return to pre-recession levels.

According to Lawrence Summers, former director of President Barack Obama’s National Economic Council and former U.S. Treasury Secretary — he is also President Emeritus of Harvard University at the top of a shortlist of potential candidates to replace current chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke — the events of the last few years have thrown into question much of what he learned and taught about coherent economic models.

Earlier this week, as Europe was in the throes of yet another crisis, this time centred in the tiny island of Cyprus, Summers told an audience at the London School of Economics that the thinking on how markets function and recover has changed. Summers was joined in the rare panel discussion by Fed Chairman Bernanke, Bank of England Governor Mervyn King and Axel Weber, former president of Germany’s central bank. Canada’s own central banker, Mark Carney was in the audience.

“The events of the last years suggest that the traditional breakdown between the structural and the cyclical that is central to economic thinking has become highly problematic. If there is anyone in this room that believes that a reasonable forecast for the U.S. or British economy at any future date would be represented by a trend line constructed through to 2007 from any previous point, I have a bridge I want to sell you,” Summers quipped.

Fourteen years ago, Summers was one in the trio of economists Time magazine anointed “The Committee to Save the World.” The other two members of the superhero league were then-Federal Chair Alan Greenspan, and U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin — Summers was deputy U.S. Treasury Secretary and became treasury secretary later that year. At the time, the troika was credited with saving the world’s financial markets from collapse and slowing the spread of the “Asian Contagion,” a wave of financial market panic that began with the rapid devaluation of Thailand’s currency and spread to other parts of Asia, Russia and Latin America, soon affecting the real economy as well. The U.S. appeared inoculated from the financial stresses afflicting other parts of the world, posting record GDP growth rates of five per cent.

Fast-forward to 2008, though, and the U.S. economy was teetering on the verge of the abyss. The committee no longer seemed so infallible — worst still, it looked guilty. As Bloomberg’s Ian Katz wrote, “their model of unfettered capitalism eventually invited disaster. The trio’s deregulatory approach encouraged banks to take risks that later threatened the U.S. financial system.”

For his part, Summers says the moniker bestowed on the three was unrealistic: “I think if anyone had the idea that somehow it was given to bankers or economists to make the world always be stable, that was a very bad idea.”

In conversation with Maclean’s, Summers spoke about lessons learned from the financial crisis, as well as Carney’s new job as Britain’s central bank governor and the Keystone XL.

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The housing market has entered the twilight zone

By Colin Campbell - Friday, March 29, 2013 at 11:54 AM - 0 Comments

Getty Images

In Ottawa, the leader of the NDP—the NDP—accused the Conservative finance minister, Jim Flaherty, of “banana republic behaviour” for his efforts to intervene in the economy and influence mortgage rates.

Meanwhile, Flaherty’s one-time ally in his anti-debt fight, Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney, has declared the household debt problem solved— apparently, a debt-to-GDP ratio of 165 per cent is no longer anything to worry about.

In Vancouver, a former prime minister, Kim Campbell, made headlines this month for filing a lawsuit in which she’s trying to get out of a 2007 condo purchase and recoup a $368,000 deposit. The Canadian housing market, it seems, has entered the twilight zone.

It’s getting harder and harder to tell what’s sensical and what’s nonsensical. Even the Tory cabinet can’t seem to agree if it should be concerned about Canadians taking on big mortgages at discount rates, with the Tories’ Small Business Minister Maxime Bernier joining Thomas Mulcair in his criticism of Flaherty.

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Will Mark Carney still be the world’s most hawkish dove tomorrow?

By Erica Alini - Tuesday, March 5, 2013 at 12:50 PM - 0 Comments

That the Bank of Canada will keep the overnight rate steady at one per cent tomorrow is a matter of almost scientific certainty. If there’s anything to discuss at all, it’s whether Governor Mark Carney will continue to be the most hawkish of dovish central bankers.

In other words, will the BoC maintain its stance that the next rate move, whenever that may be, will be a raise? The bank has been warning since April of last year that interest rates are headed nowhere but up. The exact words were:

In light of the reduced slack in the economy and firmer underlying inflation, some modest withdrawal of the present considerable monetary policy stimulus may become appropriate, consistent with achieving the 2 per cent inflation target over the medium term. 

Though the Bank toned down its wording as the economy slowed in the latter part of the year, it has kept some version of that warning in every rate announcement since, alone among major central banks to maintain what monetary policy nerds call “a tightening bias.”

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Mark Carney, meet the British press

By Leah McLaren - Thursday, February 14, 2013 at 12:30 PM - 0 Comments

Chris Wattie/Reuters

Two hours into Mark Carney’s grilling last week by the treasury select committee in London, the future Bank of England governor took a moment to fact check the British press. He denied a report stating he would be meeting with Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne while in London. In fact, Carney said with mild annoyance, “No such meeting was ever planned.”

It was a subtle yet instructive moment for Carney, who will face unprecedented media speculation in his new job—arguably the most influential unelected post in Britain. Indeed, the press onslaught is well under way.

When Carney’s appointment was announced last year, the Telegraph, a respected U.K. broadsheet with a conservative bent, immediately dispatched a reporter to his Ottawa house for a quote. Carney reportedly shooed the fellow away with a good-natured, “Give it up.” But you wouldn’t blame him for feeling a bit uneasy. That doorstepping was a harbinger of what was soon to follow.

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What Mark Carney told (Canadian) MPs about the state of the economy

By Erica Alini - Tuesday, February 12, 2013 at 4:08 PM - 0 Comments

Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney was once again answering questions from MPs this morning — not in London this time but in the more familiar setting of the House of Commons finance committee. The conversation spanned household debt, jobs, the Dutch Disease, currency wars, the Bank of Canada’s forecasting abilities and even credit card regulations, which Raymond Côté, NDP MP for Beauport-Limoilou, had strong feelings about but were unfortunately deemed completely outside the BoC’s mandate.

Here’s a what the governor argued, in a nutshell:

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Mark Carney could face a second week of tough questions, this time in Canada

By Julian Beltrame - Monday, February 11, 2013 at 7:10 PM - 0 Comments

OTTAWA – Following the grilling in London last week, outgoing Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney may be in for a second round of tough questioning Tuesday, this time from Canadian MPs.

Canada’s federal finance committee has traditionally tended to be respectful, even deferential, to Bank of Canada governors, but analysts say Tuesday’s two-hour session may see a different tone since it’s the first time the MPs will be speaking with Carney since he announced he’s leaving for the Bank of England in June.

On monetary policy, Carney is likely to be asked why the central bank had been so wide off the mark on its growth forecasts for the second half of 2012, and if the most recent estimate of a two-per-cent advance this year could also be an overshot, given recent underwhelming data.

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Brits compare Mark Carney to George Clooney and Don Draper

By macleans.ca - Thursday, February 7, 2013 at 6:42 PM - 0 Comments

Tweeps: We (heart) Mark Carney

Is he more like Don Draper or George Clooney? The soon-to-be governor of the Bank of England got a warm reception on Twitter as he appeared before a British parliamentary committee.

Storified by Maclean’s Magazine· Thu, Feb 07 2013 05:58:11

Transcript: Mark Carney explains himself in 45-page ‘job application’

By macleans.ca - Thursday, February 7, 2013 at 6:18 PM - 0 Comments

Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney was interviewed by MPs on the Treasury Select Committee on Thursday morning. At the time of his appearance, the committee released Carney’s written replies to questions related to his role as governor of the Bank of England:

Mark Carney's submission to the Treasury Select Committee by

Mark Carney on inflation, housing bubbles and how he shook up the Bank

By Erica Alini - Thursday, February 7, 2013 at 5:22 PM - 0 Comments

Besides the Q&A session with British MPs this morning, there was a written part to Mark Carney’s job interview. For you reading pleasure, we’ve uploaded the entire 45-page document here. Below is a selection of intriguing and Canada-relevant bits.

Mark Carney on Mark Carney:

I have experience in risk management in the private sector and crisis management in the public sector. In Canada, I was part of a team, which rapidly assessed the risks and instituted an effective, coordinated response to the global financial crisis, despite Canada’s deep integration with the U.S. economy and financial system.

(…)

Serving as Governor of the Bank of England will mark the pinnacle of my career. I am a strong believer in the value of public service, and I firmly believe that this responsibility offers me the opportunity to contribute where I can make the greatest impact.

On asking for a shorter term (five rather than the customary eight years):

At the end of a five-year the term, I will have served as a Governor of a G7 Governor central bank for over a decade. In my experience, there are limits to these highly rewarding but ultimately punishing jobs. Second, the five year term has advantages given the ages of my children and the disruption that is involved in moving schools and countries.

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Mark Carney tells U.K. hearing: ‘I have no political ambitions’

By Julian Beltrame - Thursday, February 7, 2013 at 2:06 PM - 0 Comments

OTTAWA – Mark Carney wanted to make one thing perfectly clear Thursday before submitting to his unofficial job interview for governor of the Bank of England — “I do not have political ambitions.”

The proof, Carney said, is in his choice of taking on the extremely challenging post as England’s top banker.

The statement before his hearing in London was perhaps the most categorical disavowal of any political interest for now, or when he is expected to return to Canada in five years.

The issue arose after it was revealed in December that Carney had been courted for — and in some eyes appeared somewhat interested in — the Liberal leadership, as well as having vacationed in the summer home of the Liberal finance critic during the summer.

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Mark Carney takes questions in Britain, emerges as answer to everything

By Leah McLaren - Thursday, February 7, 2013 at 12:11 PM - 0 Comments

Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney’s reception at the Treasury Select Committee in London today was neatly summed up by a pair of uniformed bobbies chatting outside the Thatcher Room door. “Apparently this Canadian chap is going to change the world,” said one. “Yeah,” sniffed his partner, “wouldn’t that be nice.”

The notion of Carney as an inspirational figure tasked with an exceptionally difficult job explained the prevailing mood of guarded excitement in the Thatcher Room at Westminster’s Portcullis House.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, is reported to be exceptionally confident about his new appointment, thought that didn’t preclude the future Chairman of the Bank of England from enduring a several-hour-long grilling by British MPs.

Related reading:

• Mark Carney: ‘If I had political ambitions, I would have pursued them’ 
• We (heart) Mark Carney: Is he more like Don Draper or George Clooney?
• Mark Carney explains himself in 45-page ‘job application’ 

In a small hearing room packed with British and Canadian press, Carney answered four hours of questions on subjects ranging from quantitative easing to the intricacies of flexible inflation rates to whether he was actually capable of living up to his “rock star image.”

Andrew Tyrie, the Tory MP chairing the committee, opened questioning by asking Carney why he initially refused the job. The central banker’s response – that he only accepted the Chancellor’s offer when it was revised to a five-year term from eight to accommodate his daughters’ school schedules — marked him instantly as a modern man.

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For the record: Our formerly live blog featuring Mark Carney at Treasury committee

By macleans.ca - Thursday, February 7, 2013 at 8:00 AM - 0 Comments

In case you missed it, here’s how Carney’s appearance played on Twitter: 

Read Carney’s written evidence to the Treasury Select Committee here.

Live from London: Mark Carney takes questions from the Treasury Committee

By macleans.ca - Thursday, February 7, 2013 at 4:43 AM - 0 Comments

Read Carney’s written evidence to the Treasury Select Committee here.

Spotlight on Mark Carney

By Erica Alini - Wednesday, February 6, 2013 at 3:27 PM - 0 Comments

(Chris Wattie/Reuters)

Outgoing Bank of Canada governor and Mark Carney will face British MPs in London tomorrow a few months before taking the helm of the Bank of England on July 1.

The hearing before the British Treasury Select committee is a first in the history of the 319-years old BoE. In part, this reflects increased scrutiny of the central bank by elected officials at a time when it is taking on new, sweeping powers, such as oversight of Britain’s financial institutions.

But the hearing, of course, will also be a chance for British MPs to grill the first foreigner to head what the British affectionately call the “Old Lady of Threadneedle Street.” Is the Canuck really better than any of the smart Britons who were vying for the job? British lawmakers and the media have been wondering since Carney’s appointment in November.

Carney has, if you will, an “Obama problem.” In January 2009, the first African American president of the United States took charge at a time when the country had plunged in the worst recession since the 1930s. In 2013, the first Canadian BoE governor will take the helm of monetary policy in a United Kingdom that is possibly facing a “triple-dip” economic downturn. And we all know what happened to Obama’s halo…

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British MPs aim not to bury Carney, but rather hope he can help save economy

By Julian Beltrame - Tuesday, February 5, 2013 at 5:31 PM - 0 Comments

OTTAWA – From Britain’s point of view, Mark Carney is already sending coded messages about how he intends to govern the Bank of England when he becomes the first foreigner to take over the storied institution.

So when the Bank of Canada governor testifies before the Treasury Select committee on Thursday — another first among the many his appointment represents — MPs will have plenty to inquire about during what is essentially a two-hour job interview.

Top of the list, say MPs on the committee, is Carney’s Toronto speech in December when he mused aloud about tying monetary policy, and hence interest rate settings and unconventional easing, to economic growth during “exceptional” times.

The comment, which barely got noticed in Canada, caused a major stir in Britain, where its application appears more likely given the beleaguered economy and already loose monetary policy.

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Headline from the Telegraph: ‘Watch out Chancellor, rock star Mark Carney is in town’

By macleans.ca - Saturday, February 2, 2013 at 9:47 PM - 0 Comments

Check out how the Telegraph’s Kamal Ahmed gets started on his preview of Mark Carney’s upcoming star turn in Britain:

“Like Belgium, Canada has always suffered on the “Can you name someone famous from there?” index. Scott Abbott co-invented Trivial Pursuit, Brother XII was a mystical leader who set up camp on Vancouver Island in the 1920s (later dispersed through lack of interest) and James (Win) Mortimer drew the DC Comics superhero, Superman.”

Hey, what? Hold on: Belgium? And, seriously, what about William Shatner?

Paragraph two in Ahmed’s Telegraph feature:

“I am not sure whether the new Governor of the Bank of England – who must be a shoo-in for the 2013 Most Famous Canadian Britain Has Ever Heard of Award – ever wears his underpants outside his trousers, but the way some are building up Mark Carney, you would imagine he does.”

Again … what? Anyway, a couple more excerpts on Carney for the navelgazers out there (that is, all of us — according to Ahmed):

• “Mr. Carney has the air of a man who would like nothing better than maybe shooting some craps and cracking open a Budweiser.”

• “More than one observer has noted his passing resemblance to George Clooney.”

Carney is due in front of the Treasury Select Committee in London this week. Writing elsewhere in the Telegraph, Harry Wilson says the Bank of Canada governor can expect to be asked for  his thoughts on supervision of the central bank.