Do Central Banks Serve the People?

This review concludes that the authors have written a timely and well-argued book on a political question that has come to the fore in the new era of central banking: are the interests of the people well served by independent monetary policy? They rightly draw attention to the adverse side-effects of unconventional monetary policies and market-driven financial policies that have brought central banks deeply into the political realm and have fuelled a debate on whether control over money should be left exclusively in the hands of the unelected officials who run them. The book is very informative for political economists interested in monetary policy and in options for reforming it, as well as for monetary economists with an interest in the politics behind central banking and its evolving role in society.