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In Equal Step with Foreign Coaches

At the final whistle of last Saturday’s international rugby match, Scotland succumbed to a 21 – 15 defeat at the hands of Tonga. As a result, Scotland’s rugby team is now ranked 12th in the world.

Not long afterwards Andy Robinson, the English coach of the Scottish side resigned. So yet again the lure of the foreign manager fails to deliver the expected results.

All this in the same week that Chelsea FC reached out for a foreign coach, Rafa Benitz. Inevitably hope springs eternal that foreign talent can inject a winning mentality.

This trend towards foreign coaches improving British institutions has taken a further step as the Government has now employed a successful foreign “coach” to be Governor of the Bank of England. Mark Carney is currently the head of Canada’s central bank.

Perhaps with the look and feel of a Jose Mourinho – Mark Carney is young at 47. He has also spent time learning his craft with some of the best global teams e.g. Goldman Sachs. It remains to be seen therefore if he’s the “Special One” of the G20 Central Bankers.

So what can we expect of Mark Carney’s five year tenure? Evidently he likes to communicate and this could include spelling out a low interest rate policy for the Bank of England into the long term. He’s also a keen ice hockey fan so perhaps the economy is to be kick started through infrastructure spending on a series of ice hockey stadia.

Is the appointment of Mark Carney a sign that Britain does not have the talent from within to fulfil the role? The words of Andy Robinson speaking after his resignation provide an answer, “Scotland does have the talent to move back into the top ten of rugby nations”. So there we have it, Britain does have the Talent but perhaps not just when we need it. Where’s Sven Goran Eriksson when he’s needed?

One issue which won’t be in Mark Carney’s in-tray is what to do about “hold?outs”.

These are the folks who refuse to participate in a debt restructuring by exchanging the bonds they hold for new bonds on new (less generous) terms.

Argentina suffered at the hands of a New York court last week in a claim brought by hold-outs in respect of a 2001 debt restructuring.

The case turned on the interpretation of the Latin expression, “pari passu”. A phase banded around legal documents but whose meaning is seldom regarded. The hold-outs, typically hedge funds, argued that the expression, “pari passu” meant “on equal footing” or “in equal steps” and accordingly other bond holders could not be paid ahead of them. The Court agreed, and took the pressure one notch higher by issuing an order that no-one could aid and abet Argentina in breaking the Court’s order that bond holders be treated equally.

This injunction was directed at the heart of the financial system. Namely the paying agents and banks which disburse funds to pay bond holders. So Argentina’s ability to pay sovereign debt is now in doubt until the issue is resolved. Matters will come to a head quickly as the next payment date for Argentina’s creditors is the 15th December.

So in the context of Mark Carney – it’s a good day for demonstrating that the Government’s immigration policies for skilled workers does not stop Britain attracting the best talent. Also a good day for legal paperwork and the use of Latin – so much for “plain English”.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tim Stocks .