THE Japanese government did something weird last week, but weird in a good way that other governments should follow. It nominated (drumroll) a new member of its central bank (fanfare) who has actually (fireworks) worked in industry (huge applause, fade to sunset) - namely Yukitoshi Funo, 68, who used to run Toyota Motor's North American business. Equally surprisingly, the guy he'll replace later this year is Yoshihisa Morimoto, himself a former executive of Tokyo Electric Power Co.

I'm willing to bet that if you asked the average person to guess what kinds of people set the interest rates on their mortgages or car loans, they'd be shocked to discover how rarely a central bank committee features an industry executive or a business leader. Instead, the boards are packed with economists and academics, none of whom ever had to fund payroll on a Friday, decide whether to open a new factory, hire workers in expectation of good times ahead or lay off staff to survive a downturn. In short, monetary policy is mostly decided by unelected theoreticians who have never had much skin in the game of what actually happens in the real world.

The one industry - if you can call it that - that's renowned for breeding future policymakers is banking. Goldman Sachs leads the way as an incubator for borrowing-cost bosses, spawning both Mario Draghi who helms the European Central Bank, and Mark Carney, the Canadian-born Bank of England (BOE) governor. As important as the world of finance is to the global economy, though, it's hard to justify its dominance in central banking deliberations. And the risk of promoting groupthink is obvious.