Excessive praise for central bankers from politicians is rarely a healthy sign. The whole point of making these guardians of monetary policy independent was so that they could be a restraint on the inflationary tendencies of politicians.

So when the UK Treasury referred to Mark Carney last week as "the outstanding central banker of his generation" - before the Bank of Canada chief has even taken up his new post as Governor of the Bank of England - alarm bells rang in some quarters of the City of London.