It is a great pleasure to participate in the LSE German Symposium, and congratulations to the organisers for such an interesting programme. I want to take the opportunity today to step back a little and offer some thoughts on the context and framework of monetary policy. It is fast approaching twenty five years since the UK decisively changed its monetary policy framework and embraced the idea of an independent central bank with a mandate to maintain price stability in the form of an inflation target. Now, 25 years may not seem long in the broad sweep of history, but the history of UK monetary regimes points to a ... (full story)