Britain’s banksters are upset that their central banker isn’t running interference for them ala Mr. Bernanke:
Bankers, businessmen and economists joined together to dismiss the bulk of the Bank of England Governor’s comments, with some even questioning whether he should remain in his post.
One senior banking source, at one of the UK’s top five banks, went so far as to brand Mr King “an embittered old man with no appreciation of reality”.
The anger follows an interview the Governor gave to The Daily Telegraph yesterday, in which Mr King said that the finance industry needs urgent reform and that there is a risk of a second banking crisis.
I know I’m surprised that the banks don’t see a second financial crisis coming. Why should they, when they didn’t see the first one until it arrived either? Meanwhile, in other news, one of Britain’s biggest banks just announced that it is moving to Hong Kong. What a smart decision was made by the British government in twice offering HSBC, which collected $3.5 billion from the U.S. Treasury’s bailout of AIG, in twice offering to bailout HSBC in the last three years. It’s probably fortunate for the U.K. that HSBC didn’t accept either offer.