Simon English: Bank of England should copy chairman Ben

Outlook: News from the US Federal Reserve, where Ben Bernanke achieved "one of his primary goals" as chairman, according to Bloomberg yesterday, by setting a numeric goal for inflation.

Like the Bank of England, the Federal Open Market Committee is now committed to holding inflation at 2 per cent, a move that Bernanke thinks will reduce uncertainty and keep long term interest rates low.

Fair enough. Now how about the Bank of England copies one of the Fed's mandates and makes achieving full employment one of the goals of its economic policies instead of just twittering about an inflation rate that's been above target for ages.