Kept in the dark

In my last post, I shared the news that the MPC keeps no minutes of its meetings. I had pondered whether there would be any gain in trying to use the Freedom of Information Act to force the Bank to make public more information, but naturally, they’d ensured this couldn’t happen:

The Bank is designated as a public authority and falls within scope of the Act except in respect of certain excluded functions which are specified as:

• monetary policy

• financial operations intended to support financial institutions for the purposes of maintaining stability

• the provision of private banking services and related services

 

In translation, we are not allowed to know how they make decisions on monetary policy, nor are we are allowed to know about any bailouts or special arrangements made to keep banks afloat. We are being deliberately kept in the dark.

How can be keep the BoE honest if it can’t even be transparent?