Summary
"It is the 25th anniversary of Central Banking [the magazine]. So it is a good time to be asking some big questions of central banking. How have central banks evolved over the last quarter of a century? How has the crisis affected that evolution? And what lies in prospect for them over the next 25 years? AA Milne’s 1924 poem, Halfway Down, is a fitting description of the position central banks find themselves in today. During the past 25 years or more, central banks’ mandates and instruments have moved upwards in steps. They have ascended the stairs. But where this leaves central banks today is not entirely comfortable. Halfway up the stairs is neither up nor down, neither nursery nor town. That begs a natural question about ‘where next’ for central banks over the next quarter-century. “Halfway up the stairs, Isn’t up, And it isn’t down. It isn’t in the nursery, It isn’t in the town.” AA Milne, Halfway Down (1924)" |