One of Gordon Brown's first acts as chancellor in 1997 was to give the Bank of England 'operational responsibility for setting interest rates'. For many years this rarely attracted any discussion, but in more recent times, as prices have risen and the economic outlook darkened, the role of the Bank of England in not only controlling inflation but also influencing the economy in other ways through actions such as quantitative easing has raised more and more questions about what central bank 'neutrality' really means.
In this extract from On Politics, James is joined by former Bank of England chief economist Andy Haldane and Daniela Gabor, professor of economics at SOAS, to assess the actions of the Bank of England since 1997 and whether it should continue to be independent.
Listen to the full episode here
