The worldwide financial crisis revealed that some of the basic consensuses concerning the macroeconomic policy framework and the roles of the central banks were no longer tenable. This prompted rethinking of central bank objectives, strategies and policy instruments, with particular focus on the...

To end a financial crisis, the central bank is to lend freely, against good collateral, at a high rate, according to Bagehot's Rule. We argue that in theory and in practice there is a missing ingredient to Bagehot's Rule: secrecy. Re-creating confidence requires that the central bank lend in...