The Bank of England sees its role as a manager of other people's behaviour, this article says. A bit like the coxswain in a rowing race, the Bank both barks out orders and has a well-trained hand on the tiller. Central bankers, inevitably, like to think they can steer an economy through both smooth water and rapids, but there is a major problem with this philosophy, associated with collective delusion and the emergence of financial and economic bubbles, it argues.

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