Central Banking, Monetary Policy and the Common Good: (The Elgar Series on Central Banking and Monetary Policy)

About the Book

This incisive book reframes the discourse surrounding monetary policy in terms of the common good, to provide broader social benefits. Leading experts illustrate how and why the common good must be understood in the context of creating more, not less, employment.

Authors adopt an innovative understanding of monetary policy interventions, analysing inflation targeting strategies and the roots of income and wealth inequalities. Evaluating the tension between central banks’ independence from political pressure and dependence on the views of financial markets, the book highlights the need for institutions and policies that benefit society as a whole. Ultimately, contributors argue that the purpose of monetary policy is to contribute to the betterment of communities or society, rather than markets or individuals.

Rigorous and insightful, this book is a crucial resource for students and scholars of economics and finance and also politics and public policy. It is prime reading for central bankers and politicians seeking a deeper understanding of the common good and how monetary policy impacts everyone in society.

Table of Contents:
Contents 1 Introduction to central banking, monetary policy and the common good 1 Louis-Philippe Rochon, Sergio Rossi and Guillaume Vallet 2 Can lonely monetary technocrats contribute to the common good? 10 Vadym Syrota 3 Central banking and the common good: crisis, contestation, and transformation 27 Kanad Bagchi 4 Rethinking common goods in monetary policy from a financially integrated Global South framework: central banking, financial flows and the loss of monetary policy autonomy 53 Sanchari Choudhury 5 Financial market regulation and the common good: the failure of “too-big-to-fail” 74 Peter Marshall and Wesley Marshall 6 Competition for the common good: professional trajectories and universalist claims within central bank governing bodies 98 Frédéric Lebaron and Aykiz Dogan 7 The monetary circuit for the common good 129 Louis-Philippe Rochon, Sergio Rossi and Guillaume Vallet 8 Monetary and fiscal policies as public goods: rethinking individual policies as well as their coordination for economic growth and employment 144 Eduardo Strachman, Jefferson Souza Fraga and Vitor Guidorzzi Girotto 9 Monetary policy, uneven development, and accounting for spatial justice 165 Dan Cohen, Cameron Graham and Yongqi Ke 10 From economics to ecology: the role of central banks as agents of the common good 190 Sophie Harnay, Laurence Scialom and Guillaume Vallet 11 The people’s bank: reimagining central banks as institutions for the common good 209 Jalal Qanas and Malcolm Sawyer 12 Central bank communication for the common good: how can Habermas’s theory of deliberative democracy underpin central bankers’ communication as an instrument to foster a sense of legitimacy? 221 Stefan Kesting and Hendrik Theine 13 Political aspects of tax-driven money: redefining the common good to include everyone 244 Esteban Cruz Hidalgo, Stuart Medina Miltimore and Agustín Mario

About the Author :
Edited by Louis-Philippe Rochon, Full Professor of Economics, Laurentian University, Canada, Editor-in-Chief, Review of Political Economy and Challenge, Founding Editor Emeritus, Review of Keynesian Economics and Co-Director, Monetary Policy Institute, Sergio Rossi, Full Professor of Economics, University of Fribourg, Switzerland and Guillaume Vallet, Full Professor of Economics, Université Grenoble Alpes and Research Fellow, Centre de Recherche en Economie de Grenoble (CREG), France

Review :
‘Neoclassical economists reduced the scope of monetary policy to the control of inflation, and were proud of their achievements until the Global Financial Crisis blindsided them. Now we know that they don’t know, it's time to redefine what the purpose of monetary policy should be. This book begins this process by expanding the purview of central banks from a narrow and false model of economic equilibrium to the concept of monetary policy for the common good.’ ‘This is another important collection of essays edited by Rochon et al. The premise is that macroeconomic policy recommendations should go beyond the trite slogans of mainstream economics such as “balancing the budget”, or “reducing inflation”. Why are these goals supposedly desirable for society as a whole, rather than particular interest groups such as bondholders? The authors show that often they are not.’