1. History and purpose of central banking -- 2. Post-World War II macroeconomic policy -- 3. Contemporary Federal Reserve policy -- 4. Globalization, deregulation, mounting global capital flows -- 5. New activism by the European Central Bank (ECB) and the Bank of Japan -- 6. Financial crises --...

The book considers issues relevant to the European Central Bank in refining and communicating its strategy. It offers a historical assessment of the Bundesbank's strategy of monetary targeting conducted from 1974 to 1998. In contrast to several other prominent studies it is argued that money...