In the view of a prominent monetary theorist and policy maker, there is a rising acceptance within the economics profession and in central bank and government circles of the need for an independent central bank. This view is founded upon a growing body of empirical evidence, recent theoretical...

Power and conflict play virtually no role in mainstream economics, the main reason being the pervasive influence of the competitive model and the difficulty in incorporating quantitavely in formal models. Following some preliminary remarks on power, we proceed to an historical explanation of the...