Opinion | The Banker and Bailey Circus

The Bank of England’s decision Wednesday to buy British bonds is being portrayed as a rebuke to new Prime Minister Liz Truss’s economic program, and BOE Governor Andrew Bailey may have meant it to be. The intervention calmed bond and equity markets, at least for now, though at the cost of showing again that central bankers are easily spooked into rescue mode.

Investors are cheering their success in coaxing the Bank of England back into the market to underwrite bond prices. On Monday the BOE issued a statement saying it would evaluate market movements “at its next scheduled meeting,” which is in November. Two days later it had forgotten all that and said it would “carry out temporary purchases” of longer-term gilts “to restore orderly market conditions.”