This paper reviews some of the more critical policy dilemmas facing the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its pursuit of inflation stabilization and balanced growth objectives. The challenge in meeting these objectives further increased in the mid-2000s with the advent of large capital flows into...

Following the experience of the global financial crisis, central banks have been asked to undertake unprecedented responsibilities. Governments and the public appear to have high expectations that monetary policy can provide solutions to problems that do not necessarily fit in the realm of...

The 2007-2010 Global Financial Crisis has reshuffled the cards for central bankers throughout the world. In the wake of the biggest crisis since the Great Depression, we examine the evolution of modern central banking since the inflationary chaos of the 1970s and the controversial monetarist...

This paper analyzes the Federal Reserve's major policy actions in response to the financial crisis. The analysis is divided into the pre-Lehman and post-Lehman monetary policies. Specifically, I describe the pre- and post-Lehman monetary policy actions that I believe were appropriate and those...

Overresponse to short-run events and neglect of longer-term consequences of its actions is one of the main errors that the Federal Reserve makes repeatedly. The current recession offers many examples of actions that some characterize as bold and innovative. I regard many of these actions as...

The U.S. dollar clearing and settlement system received little attention during the recent financial crisis, mainly because it performed reliably, processing record volumes and values of trades made in stressed financial markets. This article shows how Federal Reserve policy measures aimed at...

The main result of the quick reactions of the Federal Reserve (the Fed) and the European Central Bank (ECB) to the Covid-19 crisis are that more than 20% of their public debt is now held by these central banks and that the balance sheet of the ECB is now near 50% of GDP (33% for the Fed). Two...

Liquidity supply by a Lender of Last Resort (LOLR) can be pivotal for both the conduct of monetary policy and safeguard of financial stability. During the financial crisis, the importance of liquidity provision has significantly increased at both the macro-level – through the European Central...

In the 2000s, after the introduction of inflation targeting, most monetary transmission channels were weak in Hungary, making monetary policy less effective. Inflation expectations were unanchored and fiscal policy was unsustainable. Households and the government built up high debt levels mainly...