Across the board, the world s major central banks have been slow to respond to the deepening crisis.

Central Bank Confidential

Central Banks on the Offensive?

In a global economy, the decisions of the leading countries central banks have global implications.

The Wrong War for Central Banking

The Temptation of the Central Bankers

Big Banks Shadow Dance

Central Banking s New Club Class

Central Bankers under Siege

Central Banks Outdated Independence

The Secret Language of Central Bankers

PARIS The widespread introduction of unconventional monetary policy measures by major central banks has been a defining characteristic of the global financial crisis.

When the financial crisis erupted with full force in 2008, the world s major central banks were right to employ exceptional measures.

Do Central Banks Have an Exit Strategy?

The Uncertain Future of Central Bank Supremacy

Central Bankers on the Ground

In brief, the major central banks on both sides of the Atlantic have responded to the financial crisis, but they have not overreacted.

The coordinated rate cut now undertaken by the world s major central banks begins the process of policy catch up, but further cuts are needed.

The timekeepers are central banks.

If the world s central banks raise interest rates while the major problem is insufficient global demand, they might cause a depression.

To be sure, all G7 central banks are worried about the temporary rise in headline inflation, and all are threatening to hike interest rates.

The reserves that the Fed and almost all other major central banks are building will eventually be used.

Certainly central banks have played a critical role. But central banks have stated that they do not have the policy instruments to accelerate the pace of economic recovery.

Independent central banks are the archetypal example.

The West s major central banks the Bank of England, the European Central Bank, and the United States Federal Reserve should take this to heart.

In the end, both have to be bailed out by central banks.

If rich country central banks can buy long term bonds, then emerging country central banks can buy dollar denominated bonds.

This has triggered a search for a radical redefinition of central banks objectives and has cast doubt on the appropriateness of maintaining their independence.

When banks stopped providing short term liquidity to other banks and industrial companies, central banks filled the gap.

Rather than fiscal stimulation and control, the main tool of economic management nowadays is monetary policies conducted by independent central banks.

(And don t think central banks have ruled out the inflation tax.

Of course, not all central bankers are to blame.

Central bank inflation targets are now normally set at 2 .

Central bank independence is a peculiar institutional innovation.

In normal times, central banks want to reduce inflation.

So, what should Western central banks do?

As a result, central banks failed to see the oncoming financial tsunami, and even after it arrived they continued to fight the last war against inflation.

Can Central Banks Still Influence Exchange Rates?

Apart from China, central banks don t intervene to protect their currencies anymore.

But central banks cannot do it alone.

This episode serves as a reminder that central banks are political institutions, with a political agenda, and that independent central banks tend to be captured (at least cognitively ) by the banks that they are supposed to regulate.

SINGAPORE A year into the global financial crisis, several key central banks remain extraordinarily exposed to their countries shaky private financial sectors.

Second, in their efforts to combat the financial crisis, the major central banks have all brought down very short term policy interest rates to close to zero, with no clear exit in sight.

Finally, central banks still stand ready to intervene to prevent bank runs.

Foreign bank mergers have proved poisonous for euro zone central bankers.