The Bank of England has been issuing its balance sheet weekly for the last 165 years, and they have now decided that doing so is just too restrictive and inconvenient:

The Government is set to throw out the 165-year old law that obliges the Bank to publish a weekly account of its balance sheet – a move that will allow it theoretically to embark covertly on so-called quantitative easing. The Banking Bill, which is currently passing through Parliament, abolishes a key section of the law laid down by Robert Peel’s Government in 1844 which originally granted the Bank the sole right to print UK money.

The ostensible reason for the reform, which means the Bank will not have to print details of its own accounts and the amount of notes and coins flowing through the UK economy, is to allow the Bank more power to overhaul troubled financial institutions in the future, under its Special Resolution Authority.

However, some have warned that it means: “there is nothing to stop an unreported and unmonitored flooding of the money market by the undisciplined use of the printing presses.”

The data will still be issued on a delayed basis, but there is, not surprisingly, much concern that keeping real-time actions behind a shroud of secrecy could encourage substantial quantitative easing,  maybe not Weimar-calibre, but people are already throwing the word out there. I suppose it won’t be long until Governor Gono at the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe issues a statement praising the Bank of England’s move, like he did for Bernanke. (h/t to Caroline B for the link)