The Reluctant Central Banker

Most people associate Adam Smith with free markets and “the invisible hand”. But does this conventional narrative purposefully ignore Smith’s deep suspicions about monopolies and power? Georgetown assistant professor Glory Liu argues this narrow interpretation is actually a delib ... Show More

We tend to view technological advancement as an unstoppable force that naturally improves our living standards over time. From the printing press to the internet, modern society assumes that groundbreaking ideas will always find their way into the marketplace. However, beneath th ... Show More

For decades, Americans viewed the Supreme Court as an impartial referee standing above the political fray. However, public trust in this vital institution has recently plummeted to historic lows. Many observers blame a surge in ideological rulings that align with the party of the ... Show More

Central bankers emerged from the financial crisis with more clout than ever before. Can this be reconciled with democratic legitimacy? Former Bank of England Deputy Governor Paul Tucker explains why monetary authorities have become “overmighty citizens”, and how to rein them in. ... Show More

On this edition of Wall Street Week, Key Square Capital CEO Scott Bessent says that the Fed hasn't been very independent under President Biden. Columbia Law School Professor Kathryn Judge tells us how the Supreme Court's Chevron reversal could affect bank regulations. Former Brit ... Show More

Patrick Jenkins and guests discuss the future of European banking post Brexit on the sidelines of the FT's first Banking and Finance Conference in Paris, plus the latest on separate initiatives by Facebook and by a group of 13 banks to explore the potential for bitcoin transactio ... Show More

The Royal Bank of Scotland was once the biggest bank in the world. Then, hubris got the best of it. During the financial crisis the UK government spent £46bn to bail out the bank. Seventeen years and a rebrand to NatWest Group later, the government just sold its last shares in it ... Show More

In Unexpected Revolutionaries: How Central Banks Made and Unmade Economic Orthodoxy (Cornell University Press, 2024), Dr. Manuela Moschella investigates the institutional transformation of central banks from the 1970s to the present. Central banks are typically regarded as conser ... Show More

How did it feel to take on then Prime Minister Boris Johnson when Baroness Hale ruled his suspension of Parliament "unlawful"? Why does the Trump administration present such a threat to the international rule of law? The ‘Spider Woman’ has been at the centre of the legal battle f ... Show More

The price of your food shop rocketed because of inflation and now your mortgage is going up hundreds of pounds because the Bank of England decided to increase interest rates. You might be struggling to make ends meet and wondering why our central bank has made your life more diff ... Show More

Peter Orszag is a London School of Economics trained economist, best known for decades for his service in government as part of President Clinton's Council of Economic Advisors, the head of the Congressional Budget Office, and eventually for his Cabinet position as head of Presid ... Show More

Goldman Sachs Vice Chair Robert Kaplan, former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, says he expects sluggish growth but not a recession. Speaking with Sonali Basak at the Goldman Sachs Tenth Annual Leveraged Finance and Credit Conference in Dana Point, California, Kap ... Show More

Central bankers are like celebrities in the finance world: every word they say gets closely scrutinised. Did their comments always elicit such interest, and do they ever tell us anything they shouldn't? Bloomberg Opinion columnist and avid central bank watcher, Daniel Moss, joins ... Show More