Balance of Power

"Reconsidering the limits-past, present, future-of the financial institutions that stand between us and the abyss. Two financial crises in two decades have expanded and diversified the roles of central banks in the twenty-first century. With the 2008 crash, they became the lenders of last resort in monetary policy; with Covid-19, they became underwriters of the public welfare. Both powers are expansive, unchecked, and inherently political. Is this democracy? In Balance of Power, economist and historian Éric Monnet traces the rise of the central banks-from their public-private origins to their current portfolio, which spans everything from interest rates to international relations-to make an urgent and erudite argument: the central banks are no longer independent, if they ever were. And our ability to subject them to democratic rule will go a long way in wielding their expansive powers effectively in societies that face multiple crises at once. Eschewing the traditional storytelling around the birth of central banks and their operational independence, Monnet shows how the power of central banks flows from their origins as a part of the welfare state: they were the financial apparatus used to stabilize societies after World War II, and they have never abdicated that role since. Today it can be seen in the central banks' role as insurance providers-the backstop institution of bailouts, stimuli, and rescue plans. As new challenges emerge, including the boom of digital currencies and the simmering crisis of climate change, central banks will necessarily have to break the glass on longstanding taboos of monetary policy. With this creeping expansion well underway, Monnet offers a trenchant, deeply erudite case for what a democratic central bank can look like"--