"The headlines continue to be dominated by its fate. Northern Rock, however, is not the epicentre of the present global banking crisis"
Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of England, can’t see what all the fuss is about. But he wants us to know that it’s not his fault and that he can’t do anything about it anyway
"To put it bluntly, this year we are probably facing a period of above target inflation and a marked slowdown in growth"
King is keen to confess the bank’s impotence to stave off impending stagflation
"Our net new borrowing from overseas in the third quarter of the last year was, relative to GDP, the biggest in the past 50 years and the largest in the G7"
Is that a hint of who we should be blaming, as King explains that we need to save more, even though this will make things worse