Post date: Dec 14, 2012 1:19:17 PM
The Queen visited the Bank of England and tries to get an answer as to why the financial crisis happened, a question she posed four years ago.
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM (DECEMBER 13, 2012)(ROYAL POOL) - After four years, the Queen today finally had her question answered on why nobody saw the financial crisis coming. In November 2008, at the height of the global downturn, the Queen had asked academics at the London School of Economics : "Why did nobody notice it?" and described the crisis as "awful".
On Thursday (December 13), on a visit to the Bank of England with the Duke ofEdinburgh, she got a thorough answer from Sujit Kapadia from the Bank's Financial Services Committee.Mr Kapadia gave the Queen three reasons why it happened. He told her that financial crises were like earthquakes and flu pandemics and, because they are rare events, they are difficult to predict. He also said there was a new paradigm where people thought that markets were efficient and risks could be managed better than before.
The Queen appeared quite interested in the discussion, asking what authorities were doing now to prevent another global downturn.
"Perhaps I suppose in money terms it is really difficult to foresee (a financial crisis)," she said. "But people had got a bit lax, did they?"
The answer was given by one employee that 'complacency' had set in.
"Complacency," the Queen agreed.
The Queen and the Duke toured vaults full of thousands of slabs of gold worth billions of dollars and briefly inspected some of the gold. The royal couple then signed a million pound note each for the Bank's guest book.
The Queen was intrigued when she was shown the very first banknote she had signed for the guest book on November 29, 1937, as an 11-year-old.
The signature was a simple "Elizabeth" written in a neat young girl's script on a thousand pound note in the book.
On signing the note today, the Queen said of her signature: "It hasn't improved much you know."
It was the Queen's eighth visit to the Bank of England.
The royal couple were applauded by banking staff as they walked out of the building in central London and the Queen was presented with flowers by two children of staff.
As the Queen walked out of the building towards a large crowd of people waiting outside, she said of her visit: "Very interesting, isn't it?"