Recent events remind us how crucial it is that the banking and payments system should be protected from risks and crises. The difficulties that beset Indonesia, South Korea and Thailand in 1997 are a vivid example. So too are the acute problems confronting Russia in 1998, and the chronic financial malaise that underlies Japan's macroeconomics underperformance throughout the 1990's. Even more dramatic was the banking and economic collapse in the United States and much of Europe in the 1930's. It is a prime responsibility for central banks to try and prevent and contain the financial crises...

This book offers an overview of present day thought on the very topical subject of financial stability and central banking. The papers, written by leading researchers, provide a highly informed account of contemporary policy issues and explore the legal, regulatory, managerial and economic issues that affect central banks.

For monetary policymakers worldwide, developing a practical understanding of how monetary policy transmits to the economy is a day-to-day challenge. The data such policymakers have is imperfect, the maps they use are continually redrawn. With such uncertainty, understanding this complicated issue is rarely straightforward.
This book, a collaboration between some of the finest minds working on monetary theory in the world, helps to provide a foundation for understanding monetary policy in all its complex glory. Using models, case studies and new empirical evidence, the contributors to this...