And the magic happens when the two are combined, the brains and hands co-ordinated. Nothing illustrates this better than the revolution in the UK’s monetary and financial stability frameworks during my tenure. Monetary policy  I joined the Economics Division of the Bank in 1989, following the well-trodden path from Sunderland council estate to Threadneedle Street. I hoped to redesign the UK’s monetary policy framework. My first task fell a fraction short of those ambitions. It was to forecast the non-resident (“externals”) component of the asset counterparts to M4 (a measure of the money supply). Like the Schleswig-Holstein problem, only three people understood the external counterparts to M4. One was dead, the other mad and the third was not me. The external counterparts of M4 are as close to a random walk as any time-series on the planet. That makes forecasting them a mug’s game. I was that mug. Almost as thankless was the six-monthly forecasting exercise we undertook at the time. This involved every economist forecasting a component of the National Accounts in microscopic detail. My job was to forecast the Interest, Profits and Dividends component of the UK current account, another lofty task, another random walk, another game of mugs. At the end of this exhaustive process, the forecasts were sent around the Bank, as well as to HM Treasury. There, I have it on good authority, they quickly became landfill (as recycling wasn’t an option at the time). Like the UK’s entry at Eurovision, the Bank economists’ contribution was spirited but ultimately pointless.
The successes we have scored so far in this area will not have been possible without the support and contribution we have received from the Board of Trustees of this Charity. On behalf of the Board of Directors, Management and Staff of the Bank of Sierra Leone, I will like to thank them for their dedication and hard work. Within a short period of time the Board of Trustees comprising six members have worked tirelessly and assiduously to actualise the objectives of the Bank, and in the process attract  BIS Review 32/2008  1  the attention and admiration of the public. As a result, the Charity has started receiving contributions from individual members of the International Community. I therefore want to take the opportunity to single out the laudable gesture of Mr Paul Wilson and Mr Glyn Williams of De La Rue in England who in their personal capacities donated generously towards the Trust. As recent as this morning, the Trust has received contribution from Mrs Sheila Lee, mother of Mr Tom Lee. Their initiative is worthy of commendation. I therefore wish to thank them profusely through Mr Tom Lee who also is a member of the De La Rue family and who has been an effective Ambassador of the Trust, for their humanitarian gesture. This I believe should serve as an inspiration for our local collaborators to follow suit.