Polish central bank Governor Marek Belka has been caught on tape asking a government official to dismiss the finance minister, in return for engineering an economic rebound to help the government win re-election. If he doesn't resign, the government should fire him.
Poland's Wprostmagazine last week published transcripts of a July 2013 conversation between Belka and Polish Interior Minister Bartlomiej Sienkiewicz, in which Belka effectively asks for the ouster of Jacek Rostowski, the finance minister at the time. Although media attention has focused on some salacious comments the governor made about one of his fellow Monetary Policy Council members, it's the besmirching of the independence of his office that makes Belka's position untenable.
