The appointment of Mark Carney as governor of the Bank of England is a historic event. It is extraordinary – and admirable – that a country should choose to give its most important official position to a foreigner such as Mr Carney, even if Canadians are not very foreign and the governor-designate, with his English wife and connections, less so than most of his compatriots. Yet it is also both a surprise and a gamble. It is a surprise because Mr Carney, a widely respected governor of the Bank of Canada, did not – so far as I know – apply for the job. It is a gamble because a foreign national will be assuming a job that is inescapably political and, in the current difficult economic and financial circumstances of the UK, even more political than usual.
任命馬克•卡尼(Mark Carney)爲英國央行(BoE)行長，是一個歷史性事件。即便加拿大人也是大英女王的子民，而且這位新任行長娶了位英國太太，在英國有很多親朋好友，比大部分加拿大人與英國更親近，但一個國家選擇這樣一位外國人擔任其最重要的官方職位，仍是非同尋常和令人欽佩的。不過，這個任命依然令人意外，也是一場賭博。它之所以令人意外，是因爲（據我所知）這位廣受尊敬的加拿大央行(Bank of Canada)行長沒有主動申請成爲英國央行行長。它之所以是一場賭博，是因爲一名外國公民將出任一個不可避免地帶有政治性的職位，而且考慮到英國當前艱難的經濟和金融形勢，該職位的政治性更甚往常。