Come on George!
Brooks Newmark, a Conservative, is asking the questions now.
Q: You were thinking “out of the box” when you hired Carney? Isn’t it time for the Treasury to think “out of the box” on inflation targeting?
Osborne says there has been plenty of creative thinking on monetary policy in the UK in recent years.
He won’t give a running commenting on Treasury thinking, he says.
But if you want to change the regime, you need to make a strong case for it, he says.
Q: But you must have an opinion on replacing the inflation target with a GDP target?
Osborne says he does not think it is sensible for him to openly speculate about the macro-economic framework.
• Osborne does not rule out replacing the Bank of England’s inflation target.
Osborne says it would be a good thing for academia to lead the debate on the value of having an inflation target, and for governments to follow.
For me, that’s as good as a “yes”. I’m slightly amazed, to be honest, that things have moved so far so quickly.