The global financial crisis in 2008 brought central banking to the centre stage, prompting questions about the role of national central banks and - in Europe - of the multi-country European Central Bank. What can central banks do, and what are their limitations? How have they performed?...

Over the last thirty years or so the developments in the area of monetary and macroeconomic policies have been quite substantial. Within the new consensus macroeconomics (NCM), monetary policy is upgraded while fiscal policy is downgraded. This new monetary policy has been the main instrument of...