King Recovers From Northern Rock Stumble to Leave BOE

Bank of England Governor Mervyn King retires in two days after a career that saw a decade of economic calm before a struggle with a financial crisis that initially threatened to end his leadership.

After becoming the bank’s chief economist in 1991, King pushed to revamp operations for a new inflation-targeting regime. While that helped slay the price volatility that plagued the U.K. over the previous two decades, it wasn’t enough to damp financial excesses that burst with the crisis of 2008.