All this points to an interesting paradox. Mervyn King was not a man given to pressing the punch on partying bankers. To the contrary, as an academic economist, he believed that the Bank had in the past been far too ready to ply its friends in the City with favours. His was an almost visceral disregard for finance, a fact that helps explain both why he's managed to remain a relatively popular central banker who is not generally blamed for the crisis – his demands for root-and-branch banking reform play strongly to the popular view – and the Bank of England's relatively tardy response to the financial crisis.