Everyone knows that the two prime candidates to replace Mervyn King as Bank of England governor are Adair Turner, chairman of the soon-to-be-defunct Financial Services Authority, and Paul Tucker, deputy governor of the Bank. So this evening’s lecture by Mr Turner at Clare College Cambridge, with a response from Mr Tucker, was a mouth-watering prospect. It required a trip to the University.

Bank wags dubbed it a Sumo showdown.

The title: Creating a stable financial system: is the reform programme sufficiently radical?
The venue: Clare College, Cambridge (packed)
The outcome: a fascinating draw if that is possible in Sumo. Victory seemed to be going Turner’s way because Tucker didn’t show up until Turner had nearly finished, but this was a traffic related delay rather than the deputy governor shrinking from the fight.

Actually, there were very few outright blows landed Read more