Central Banking in the Crisis: Conceptual Convergence and Open Questions on Unconventional Monetary Policy

The advanced economies — financial crisis that began in 2007 was triggered by factors that could not have been easily foreseen but also by factors that had been familiar since the Great Depression but were ignored or forgotten. However, once the crisis was apparent, central banks of the major advanced economies — the European Central Bank, the U.S. Federal Reserve System, the Bank of England, and the Bank of Japan reacted quickly and with a remarkable convergence of policy with respect to defining price stability, communication, enhanced banking surveillance, the role of money and monetary aggregates, unconventional liquidity supply, and forward guidance. These elements of convergence are discussed with respect to their strength and possible dangers in stabilizing the global financial system.