The global financial crisis that began in mid-2007 has renewedconcerns about financial instability and focused attention onthe fundamental role of central banks in preventing andmanaging systemic crises. In response to the turmoil, centralbanks have made extensive use of both new and existing...

Monetary policy has traditionally been viewed as theprocess by which a central bank uses its influence overthe supply of money to promote its economic objectives. Forexample, Milton Friedman (1959, p. 24) defined the tools ofmonetary policy to be those “powers that enable the [FederalReserve]...

Central bank policymakers are not primarilyrandom number generators.1 Reading boththe financial press and the work of academics,however, one might get the opposite impression.Reporters (and the readers of their stories) seem toattach considerable importance to each Federal OpenMarket Committee...