Mervyn King: Monetary policy developments Speech by Mr Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England, to CBI Wales/CBI CYMRU, Cardiff, 11 June 2007. *  *  *  Chairman, First Minister, Ladies and Gentlemen, Two years ago I spent a few days walking along Offa’s Dyke. Up on the ridge, between Hay and Pandy, there is a magnificent 360° view. The patchwork quilt of green fields in England lies to the east. But the eye is drawn to the rugged and spectacular scenery of the Black Mountains in “Wild Wales” to the west. The landscape, however, is not everything because as George Borrow wrote in 1862: “Wales has something beyond wonderful scenery, its eventful history, and its illustrious men of yore to interest the visitor. Wales has a population, and a remarkable one.” It is a population that has had to adapt to great changes in the world economy over the past century and continues to do so today. You need only look outside at the Cardiff Bay development to see the way the Welsh economy has changed. When you take a flight, the aircraft may well have wings made in Wales. Your car might have a Welsh engine and be insured in Cardiff. And when you holiday in France your morning croissant has probably been baked in an oven made in Swansea. What happens in Wales matters for the UK economy. That is why the Bank of England has a team who live and work in Wales.
Thankfully, Marvin, along with others, helped lay the intellectual groundwork and created the vocabulary for us to work through some of the most significant issues facing central banks. His work is a true emblem of how researchers play a vital role in informing and shaping the policy discussion. I look forward to the upcoming conversation. Thank you. 1 Jeffrey C. Fuhrer and Mark S. Sniderman, Conference Summary, Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Volume  32, Number 4, Part 2, pp. 845–69, November 2000. 2 Marvin Goodfriend, Overcoming the Zero Bound on Interest Rate Policy, Journal of Money, Credit and Banking,  Volume 32, Number 4, Part 2, pp. 1007–35, November 2000. 3 Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Transcript of the Federal Open Market Committee Meeting  and presentation materials, January 29–30, 2002. 2/2  BIS central bankers' speeches