Masaaki Shirakawa, the Bank of Japan (BoJ) governor, staunchly defended the use of financial market prices as an information source for central banks in a speech today (December 3).

If used wisely, the market is still the best arbiter of economic outcomes, Shirakawa said, explaining that while in the build-up to the crisis there was overconfidence in extracting information, price movement still reflect developments in the broader economy.

Shirakawa was firm in his criticism of the pre-crisis