The Bundesbank Myth; Towards a Critique of Central Bank Independence

by Jeremy Leaman

• ISBN13: 9780333738627
• ISBN10: 0333738624
• Format: Trade Book
• Copyright: 2001-03-07
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

Until recently, central bank independence was confined to the US and Germany. As a result of stagflation and the espousal of neo-liberalism in the 1980s, central bank independence has been adopted in most developed and many other countries. This book questions the principle of autonomy, examining the Bundesbank in historical context, and exposing the flaws in both the technical and the political case for the wholesale adoption of the Bundesbank model by other states.

Author Biography

Jeremy Leaman is Senior Lecturer in the Department of European Studies at Loughborough University. His specialist research field is the political economy of modern Germany. He is author of The Political Economy of West Germany 1945-1985; he has co-edited two other volumes and written numerous chapters and articles on related subjects.

Table of Contents

List of Charts	vi
List of Tables	vi
Preface	ix
Acknowledgements	xi
Why is Money a Problem?	1	(21)
Autonomy and the German Traditions of Liberalism	22	(30)
Constituting Autonomy -- From the Reichsbank to the Bundesbank	52	(62)
Exercising Autonomy -- From the `Miracle Years' to the End of Bretton Woods 1958--1972	114	(41)
Towards Dominance -- Central Bank Politics 1973--1982	155	(38)
The Emperor's New Clothes -- Monetarism, Monetary Accumulatio and the Blindness of Power 1982--1990	193	(27)
The Final Chapter -- Germany, EMU and the Bundesbank	220	(26)
Concluding Remarks: Breaking the Myth	246	(15)
Bibliography	261	(10)
Index	271