Mark Carney: the ‘rock star central banker’ weighing up run to be Canada’s PM
Mark Carney, who has said he is considering a run to replace Justin Trudeau as Canada’s prime minister, spent seven years in the UK as the Bank of England governor.Carney was headhunted in 2013 by the then chancellor, George Osborne, after serving as the governor of the Bank of Canada, and was known at the time by the unlikely epithet of “rock star central banker”.He remains an influential figure on the global economic stage, and Rachel Reeves hailed his endorsement at the 2023 Labour conference – given by video message – as the party sought to present itself as economically credible.Carney called Reeves a “serious economist” who “understands the economics of work, of place and family”.Carney arrived in London determined to bring change to the stuffy Bank.
He introduced plastic banknotes, and a new approach to communication known as “forward guidance”, which was meant to give investors a clearer idea of which way interest rates were heading,The former innovation proved more immediately successful than the latter,After the Bank was seen as sending out mixed signals on rates, Carney was memorably accused of being an “unreliable boyfriend” by the Labour MP Pat McFadden – then a member of the Treasury select committee, now a powerful Cabinet Office minister,Carney also waded into the fractious debate over Brexit, repeatedly warning about the risks to the economy of leaving the EU – leading to accusations that he had politicised the independent Bank,In the event, the economy avoided recession in the aftermath of the unexpected vote for Brexit in June 2016 – helped in part by the Bank’s response, which included cutting interest rates and boosting its bond-buying programme, known as quantitative easing.
Carney began his banking career with 13 years at the US lender Goldman Sachs before taking the helm at Canada’s central bank in 2007.Since leaving the Bank of England, he has continued to write and work on an area he emphasised as governor: the need for financial markets to catch up with the risks of the climate crisis.In a much-quoted speech from 2015, he warned that efforts to tackle global heating were compromised by “the tragedy of the horizon” – politicians’ and markets’ inability to look beyond the next few years.In his 2021 book Value(s) – subtitled “An Economist’s Guide to Everything that Matters” – Carney enlarged on the idea, and attacked finance-driven capitalism more broadly, for losing sight of society’s needs.Now 59, Carney is the chair of the Canadian investment firm Brookfield Asset Management, which has $1tn (£800bn) under management.
Since 2023 he has also been the chair of Bloomberg’s board,Carney has repeatedly been mooted as a potential successor to Trudeau, who announced his resignation on Monday,If he did win the leadership, he would face what is expected to be a tough election battle,The former Bank governor, who has four daughters, told the Financial Times he “will be considering this decision closely with my family over the coming days”,
Mark Carney ‘considering’ run to replace Justin Trudeau as Canada PM
The former Bank of England governor Mark Carney, a climate-focused economist who became the first non-Briton to run the Bank, is considering entering the race to replace Justin Trudeau as Canada’s prime minister.Trudeau announced on Monday he would step down after nearly 10 years in power once his ruling Liberal party chose a new leader, throwing open the doors to a fierce party race before a general election later this year.Carney, 59, in a statement quoted by Bloomberg, where he is a chair of the board of directors, said he would be “considering this decision closely with my family over the coming days”. A longtime and prominent member of the Liberal party, Carney said he was “encouraged” by the support of Liberal lawmakers and people “who want us to move forward with positive change and a winning economic plan”.Speculation that Carney, who ran the Bank of Canada from 2008 to 2013 and the Bank of England from 2013 to 2020, could be seeking high office has grown over the past few months as Trudeau’s popularity plummeted amid record inflation, an acute housing crisis, high food prices and voter fatigue
UK music sales hit record high as Taylor Swift tops album sellers
Music lovers spent a record £2.4bn on streaming subscriptions and physical music last year as the UK music industry finally recovers from the digital revolution that ushered in rampant online piracy and the slow death of the CD.Subscriptions to streaming services such as Spotify, Amazon and Apple, and the revival in the popularity of vinyl, with sales increasing for 17 consecutive years, fuelled a 7.4% rise in music revenues to £2.38bn last year, according to the Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA)
Rolls-Royce to invest £300m in expansion of Goodwood factory
Rolls-Royce Motor Cars has said it will invest £300m in expanding its Goodwood factory in West Sussex to meet the growing demand for bespoke upgrades, after the luxury carmaker recorded its third-highest annual sales in 2024.The investment will extend the luxury carmaker’s manufacturing facility as it gradually moves away from V12 petrol engines to battery electric vehicles, as well as increasing its capacity to fulfil the whims of some of the world’s richest people.The company is enjoying a boom in demand for one-of-a-kind variations required by super-wealthy clients willing to spend more than £500,000 on average on a single car. Those embellishments range from solid gold bonnet sculptures or mother-of-pearl art works, to holographic paint finishes and LED lights in the ceiling that mimic the stars on a particular date: one client last year asked for their dog’s birthday.Rolls-Royce, owned by Germany’s BMW since 2003, said it sold 5,712 cars last year, although sales were down 5% compared with the 6,032 sold in 2023, its highest ever
Rise in UK borrowing costs could push Reeves to new public spending cuts
Rachel Reeves could be forced to make fresh cuts to public spending at her March “spring forecast” as a rise in government borrowing costs risks the chancellor breaking her own fiscal rules.With the government under pressure on the economy, City analysts warned that Britain’s long-term borrowing costs hitting the highest level since 1998 risked wiping out almost all of a £10bn buffer the chancellor had kept in reserve at the autumn budget.The yield – in effect the interest rate – on UK 30-year debt rose by 0.4 percentage points to 5.22%, above the peak reached after Liz Truss’s mini-budget in 2022 sparked turmoil in financial markets, to hit the highest level in 27 years
Shein lawyer accused of ‘wilful ignorance’ over cotton linked to forced Uyghur labour
The online fashion seller Shein has refused to reassure British MPs that its products do not include cotton produced in the Xinjiang region of China, which has been linked to forced Uyghur labour, prompting one MP to accuse its representative of “wilful ignorance”.In testy exchanges before MPs on the business and trade committee, Yinan Zhu, the general counsel for Shein’s European arm, repeatedly said she was not qualified to answer questions about the fast-fashion retailer’s supply chain amid concerns from campaigners over forced labour.Zhu said she could not answer questions about whether Shein’s manufacturers – none of which the company owns directly – used the controversial yarn or whether any of them were based in the Xinjiang region. She said the company may be able to provide a written answer in future.Zhu was sent a dossier outlining links between cotton production in the region and forced labour of the Muslim minority Uyghur people
McDonald’s sacked 29 people after sexual harassment allegations, MPs told
The chief executive of McDonald’s has said 29 people have been dismissed in the past year after allegations of sexual harassment.The UK boss of the fast-food chain, Alistair Macrow, told MPs on Tuesday that the company had been alerted to 75 allegations of sexual harassment over the last 12 months, 47 of which had been upheld with disciplinary action taken and 29 of which resulted in people being dismissed.Macrow’s appearance before MPs on the business and trade select committee came as more than 700 junior McDonald’s workers joined legal action against the chain after allegations of widespread discrimination, homophobia and sexual harassment at its UK restaurants.Hundreds of current and former crew members – some as young as 19 – have instructed the law firm Leigh Day to take action on their behalf, in a move that has implicated more than 450 of its UK outlets.Complainants have been coming forward after an investigation a year ago by the BBC, which on Tuesday claimed that workers at the chain were still facing sexual abuse and harassment despite a promise from McDonald’s to address the concerns after they were first raised
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