Roselli A. The Political Economy of Central Banking. A Short History...2025

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Roselli A. The Political Economy of Central Banking. A Short History...2025

Textbook in PDF format This book presents a comprehensive overview of central banks and their functions, from the first ‘banks of issue’ in the late 17th century to their place in modern advanced economies. It traces the growth of these institutions through time, and raises pertinent questions about their political representation in the present day. With a broad focus on themes of money creation, monetary policy, foreign exchange policy, and supervision and regulation, this book demonstrates how central banking grew significantly during the 19th century with the establishment of central banks as an independent institution. It discusses the transformations to central banking brought about by the upheaval of the 20th century, including world wars, economic crises, and social unrest, with the creation of ‘fiat money’ replacing a rigid gold standard, and charts these changes across different country settings including the evolving relationship of central banks to both democratic and authoritarian political systems. The book argues that challenges to central banking come from opposite sides: theories that see the government as the sole creator of currency and deny any autonomy to the central bank, and the emergence of private, unregulated cryptocurrencies, where the concept of money is framed in an anarchic vision of the society. Written in an accessible style, this book will be of interest to scholars of financial history and political economy, as well as any reader interested in the role of central banks in civic society. Introduction. Why a Central Bank Money and Credit. Inseparable Like the Grinning From the Cheshire Cat The Value of Things. Classical and Neo-Classical Views Theories of Money Money and Credit How Banks of Issue Became Central Banks At the Origin of the Central Bank The Strange Case of John Law and His Banque Generale The Link Between Issuing Activity and Banking Activity at the Central Bank Central Bank as Lender of Last Resort, According to Walter Bagehot Bimetallism The Rules of the Game of the International Gold Standard How Two Central Banks Behaved Under the Gold Standard Central Bank at War: Subservient to the Government How to Finance a War. First World War Financing and Central Banks The United Kingdom. The Pound Inconvertibility as a Necessary But Temporary Device Italy. The Overwhelming Monetary Financing of War The United States. Emerging from War as a Superpower Interwar Phase 1. Gold Standard Re-Establishment and the Great Depression An Overview of the Interwar Period Restoration and Crisis of the Gold Standard The United States: A Young Central Bank, the Stock Market Crash and the Great Depression Different Explanations of the Great Depression The United Kingdom: Over-Ambitious The Latin Countries. France and Italy: In Gold We Trust Germany: The Risks of Gold Orthodoxy Interwar Phase 2. The London Conference and the Gold Standard Collapse Misunderstandings and Inconclusiveness: The Gold Delegation and the London Conference The Interventionist State, and How Central Banks Were Affected The End of the Gold Standard and the Affirmation of Dirigisme Much Ado About Nothing? Banking Collapses and Reform in the Interwar Years The Case for the “Narrow Bank” Central Bank: Independent Within the Government The Currencies’ International Framework Central Banks’ Institutional Changes Return to Price Stability “We Are All Keynesian Now”: Is the Keynesian Consensus Confined to Anglo-Saxon Countries? Inflation Is Always and Everywhere a Monetary Phenomenon Monetarism in the 1970s Neoliberalism and Disinflation The Lira, the Pound and the Deutsche Mark: A Short Cohabitation in the European Exchange Rate Mechanism Banking Supervision in a Context of Deregulation Negative and Positive Liberty as Different Guiding Principles of Banking Deregulation The Changing Landscape of Supervision in the United Kingdom United States: Pressure and Resistance to Deregulate. Federal Reserve’s Administrative Deregulation Italy: Cautious Deregulation and Political Interferences Restatement of Independence. The Eurosystem Central Banks’ Augmented Discretion and Inflation Targets “The Great Moderation” in the United States Redefining the Bank of England Italy Towards the Euro The European Central Bank and the Euro Financial Crisis and Recession Unprepared Prompt Reaction to the Financial Crisis Causes of the Crisis Epilogue References Index