"All power to the Soviets!" Central bank overreach in Sweden and elsewhere

I remembered Lenin's phrase "All power to the Soviets!" when I read this morning that Stefan Ingves, head of Sweden's central bank, thinks that the bank should have more power over the economy. Specifically, the Financial Supervisory Authority (FSA) is standing in the way of the central bank's direct regulation of the housing market. Ingves proposes that the FSA be merged into the central bank. (i.e. eliminated and its authority given to the CB)

Sweden's economy grew 4.5% last year and is expected to grow 3.5% this year. The central bank lending rate is -0.5%. (I believe that Sweden was the first to go negative.) The bank has also done the requisite quantitative easing. The fly in the ointment is that inflation is only 0.4% whilst the target is 2.0%.

Personally, I don't see why stable prices and a booming economy is not considered a good enough result. The Central bank, which seems quite pleased with itself, says, however, that it needs more power so that things will be even better.

It's human nature: everyone thinks he ought to have more power.