Money versus job satisfaction. It is the perennial professional quandary, but there may in fact be one exception: central banking. Jerome Powell, chair of the US Federal Reserve, earns $190,000 per year for the privilege of overseeing the greatest economy the world has ever seen. I'm not saying the job is easy, but when Powell raises interest rates, inflation falls and GDP continues to grow. Oh, and possession of the global reserve currency must be nice, too. In other words, boring.
But on the flip side of the coin is Andrew Bailey, Governor of the Bank of England. Not only does Bailey enjoy a vastly higher annual salary of £495,000, but he gets to oversee a rollercoaster of an economy replete with sterling crises, pensions crises and a private sector that would not know sustainable growth if it alighted at Bank and introduced itself. So more money, more fun – it is surely no contest?
