Description
Book SynopsisCentral banks are supposed to stabilize markets, yet decades of mounting central bank power have seen wave after wave of financial crisis. Leon Wansleben offers novel explanations for the rise of central banks and the problematic implications of their finance-dependent policies.
Trade ReviewThe Rise of Central Banks shines light on the agency of bureaucrats and calls upon society and elected leaders to direct these actors’ efforts toward more progressive goals. * Politics Today *
A laudable undertaking…Wansleben is breaking new ground. He has something to offer that you do not find in mainstream economic literature. -- Niels Bünemann * Central Banking *
The Rise of Central Banks is a smart, well-researched book about central banks and their prominent role in economic governance during the recent era of financialized capitalism. Wansleben does a fine job weaving together many events, episodes, and details into a coherent story. Audiences interested in the Fed, central banking, economic policy, and financialization will certainly want to read this book. -- Bruce G. Carruthers, Northwestern University
This is an impressive work that adds substantially to our scholarly understanding of modern central banks and why they have come to have such a dominant impact on our everyday lives. -- Kathleen R. McNamara, Georgetown University
Today’s economies are profoundly shaped by what central banks do, the decisions they take, and their blindspots. Wansleben’s superb book brings new depth, scholarship, and sophistication to the study of these hugely important organizations. -- Donald MacKenzie, University of Edinburgh
Ambitious and well-researched. Wansleben dissects the growing operational entanglements between monetarist governing techniques, the expansion of financial markets, and neoliberal economic policies in a world where central banks have become more powerful than ever. The outcome is a bloated financial sphere that is dangerously reliant on central banks’ actions to preserve its explosive power. A chilling, but incredibly important, account. -- Marion Fourcade, author of
Economists and Societies: Discipline and Profession in the United States, Britain, and France, 1890s to 1990s
