What problem the Fed and other central banks are solving by printing money and letting interest rates fall to zero is the focus of this paper. This activity does not appear to affect nominal GDP or inflation prior to COVID, and yet central bank liabilities have continued to rise. This suggests...

Using a political economy approach, this paper sheds light on how two factors – central bankers' preferences and the central bank's design – progressively assumed a crucial role in the evolution of monetary policy economics in the last four decades. The two factors jointly identify the...