The functions of the financial system of a developed economy are often badly understood. This can largely be attributed to free-market ideology, which has spread the belief that leaving finance to its own devices would provide the best possible mechanism for allocating savings. The latest...

This discusses the unique experience of Peru`s Central Bank with inflation targeting in an economy characterized by a high degree of financial dollarization. The paper outlines how Peru has taken financial dollarization into consideration in the design of monetary policy, then deals with...

This paper investigates the (re-)establishment of central banking in West Germany after 1945 and the history of the Bundesbank Act of 1957. The main focus is on the early emphasis on the 'independence' of the central bank, which, together with a 'stability-orientation' in monetary policy, proved...

1. Introduction - Pressman and Smithin -- I. Budget -- 2. Keynes after Piketty: Some Unsettling Questions Regarding Government Budget Deficits - Steven Pressman -- 3. Some Unsettling Questions Regarding Government Budget Deficits: The National Debt is Irrelevant - David Barrows -- II. Trade --...