Central banks now stand between societies and collapse, but are they still democratic?Two decades of financial crises have dramatically expanded central banks' powers. In 2008, and then again in 2020, unelected banking officials found themselves suddenly responsible for the public welfare—not just because it was necessary but based on an idea that their independence from political systems would insulate them from the whims of populism. Now, as international crises c...

Under the co-direction of Bruno Cabrillac and Pierre Jaillet, issue 161 of the Revue d’économie financière is an extension of issue 160 on geopolitical shifts and their geoeconomic consequences. It is being published both in French and English.The first volume (“The Era of Disruption”) analyzed the geoeconomic consequences of a systemic “polycrisis”, which has revealed the tensions arising from a phase of rapid globalization coupled with economic disruption. Issue 161 (“Th...

It is common wisdom that central banks in the postwar (1945–1970s) period were passive bureaucracies constrained by fixed-exchange rates and inflationist fiscal policies. This view is mostly retrospective and informed by US and UK experiences. This book tells a different story. Eric Monnet shows that the Banque de France was at the heart of the postwar financial system and economic planning, and that it contributed to economic growth by both stabilizing inflation and fostering direct lendi...