Central Banking in the Twentieth Century

by John Singleton

• ISBN13: 9780521899093
• ISBN10: 0521899095
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-12-27
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Central banks are powerful but poorly understood organisations. In 1900 the Bank of Japan was the only central bank to exist outside Europe but over the past century central banking has proliferated. John Singleton here explains how central banks and the profession of central banking have evolved and spread across the globe during this period. He shows that the central banking world has experienced two revolutions in thinking and practice, the first after the depression of the early 1930s, and the second in response to the high inflation of the 1970s and 1980s. In addition, the central banking profession has changed radically. In 1900 the professional central banker was a specialised type of banker, whereas today he or she must also be a sophisticated economist and a public official. Understanding these changes is essential to explaining the role of central banks during the recent global financial crisis.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations	p. ix
Acknowledgements	p. x
List of abbreviations	p. xi
A beginner's guide to central banking	p. 1
Very boring guys?	p. 17
Wind in the willows: the small world of central banking c. 1900	p. 34
Something for everyone: new central banks, 1900-1939	p. 50
A series of disasters: central banking, 1914-1939	p. 69
The mysteries of central bank cooperation	p. 91
The first central banking revolution	p. 110
No time for cosmic thinkers: central banking in the 'Keynesian'era	p. 128
Rekindling central bank cooperation in the Bretton Woods era	p. 147
The goose that lays the golden egg: central banking in developing countries	p. 165
The horse of inflation	p. 184
The second central banking revolution: independence and accountability	p. 204
Reputations at stake: financial deregulation and instability	p. 222
Inflation targeting: the holy grail?	p. 241
The long march to European monetary integration	p. 259
A world with half a million central bankers	p. 277
References	p. 289
Index	p. 327
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.