If so, it is relatively easily rectified. Having identified the different folks, it is then a question of applying different strokes to communicating and engaging with them. One size will not fit all. That probably means the need for engagement policies that are targeted and layered to meet the different needs of different cohorts. This does not mean we should stop communicating with our current audience. Their needs may be well-served by some of the analysis we already produce. But it may call for a particular focus on those cohorts currently out of reach of central banks, such as the young and the less well-off. Both the message and the medium matter here. For the wider public, especially the younger and the less well-off cohorts, Mark Thompson’s synopsis of the changing form of public language – shorter and simpler – may be a good starting point. Over the past year or so, the Bank of England has diversified its stable of publications, with a view to reaching that some of that wider audience. In 2015 the Bank began a staff blog, “Bank Underground”. This was intended to be shorter, simpler and somewhat more opinionated than anything the Bank had previously published. So far, the blogs have received over 700,000 hits. The most popular are amongst the best-read of any Bank publication. That is probably helped by their shorter length (under 1500 words) and greater reach (reading grade scores of 9 mean that they are accessible to up to 30% of the population).
This rising tide of responsibilities is not confined to monetary policy. Around 80% of central banks have some role in setting new macro-prudential tools. 12  The Bank of England is among the over 50% of central  banks fully in charge of doing so. In the US, responsibility is shared across agencies, including the Fed. In the European Union, responsibility is also spread across agencies, including a number of central banks. In the run-up to the financial crisis, micro-prudential policy was increasingly located outside central banks. Since the crisis, however, that trend has reversed (Chart 3). The ECB has assumed responsibility for supervising the euro area’s largest banks. The Federal Reserve’s supervisory responsibilities have been expanded and enhanced. And in the UK, micro-prudential supervision has returned to the Bank. 13  The most recent chapter in central banks’ evolutionary history has been increased openness and transparency about their actions, monetary, macro- and micro-prudential. This shift was a natural  9  Consistent with that, the historical evidence suggests that institutions, such as central banks, are essential elements of statecraft (Acemoglu and Robinson, 2012). 10 See for example, Cukierman et al (1992), Grilli et al (1991), Crowe and Meade (2007), Arnone et al (2006), Dincer and Eichengreen (2014), Bodea and Hicks (2015) and Garriga (2016). 11 The Cukierman et al (1992) index, updated and expanded by Garriga (2016). 12 Claessens et al (2016), discussed in Blinder et al (2017).