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Public Currency: Anthropological Labor in Central Banks

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  • Douglas R. Holmes

Abstract

This article examines the operation of an emerging monetary regime in which ‘mere words’, as Yellen, Janet (2013. ‘Communications in Monetary Policy.’ Speech presented at the Society of American Business Editors and Writers 50th Anniversary Conference, Washington, DC, April 4) recently noted, play a decisive role. Drawing on my field research in five central banks -- the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, the Bundesbank, the Bank of England, the Riksbank, and the European Central Bank -- I address how this regime, which I term a ‘public currency’, works in theory and practice and what is at stake in its regulation and management. At the heart of this regime is a far-reaching premise: the public must be broadly recruited to collaborate with central banks in achieving the ends of monetary policy, namely ‘stable prices and confidence in the currency’. I further argue that monetary policy is now being aligned overtly with public interests, interests that are not fully or necessarily reducible to the prerogatives of finance or the interests of financial markets.

Suggested Citation

  • Douglas R. Holmes, 2016. "Public Currency: Anthropological Labor in Central Banks," Journal of Cultural Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(1), pages 5-26, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:jculte:v:9:y:2016:i:1:p:5-26
    DOI: 10.1080/17530350.2015.1068700
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Claudio Borio, 2011. "Central banking post-crisis: What compass for uncharted waters?," BIS Working Papers 353, Bank for International Settlements.
    2. Goodhart, C. A. E., 2010. "The Changing Role of Central Banks," Working Papers 11-27, University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School, Weiss Center.
    3. Janet L. Yellen, 2013. "Communication in Monetary Policy : a speech at the Society of American Business Editors and Writers 50th Anniversary Conference, Washington, D.C., April 4, 2013," Speech 625, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    4. Eichengreen, Barry, 2016. "Hall of Mirrors: The Great Depression, the Great Recession, and the Uses-and Misuses-of History," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780190621070.
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    6. Vasilev, Aleksandar & Maksumov, Rashid, 2010. "Critical analysis of Chapter 23 of Keynes’s Notes on Mercantilism in The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money (1936)," EconStor Research Reports 155318, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
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