Will Bateman - Böcker

A revelatory history of how the Federal Reserve finances American power.Central banks, we are told, are economic superpowers that must remain independent of modern democratic governments. The US Federal Reserve’s presumed insulation from politics affords it autonomy and credibility to control inflation and promote economic stability—or so the story goes.In The Fiscal Fed, Will Bateman offers a deeply sourced, empirical history that shows the Fed’s primary function is actually, and has always been, fiscal—sustaining the market for Treasury borrowing that makes up the difference between federal spending and federal revenue. Bateman combs Fed meeting transcripts, staff notes, financial accounts, and legal documents to trace loans and public-debt purchases since the central bank’s founding. The result is a milestone work that reveals how, for most of the Fed’s history, its transactions were aimed at government financing—either by providing cheap credit to close budget gaps or by manipulating yields on government debt. The Fed’s support for government finance is a feature, not a bug, of American economic institutions.

A revelatory history of how the Federal Reserve finances American power.Central banks, we are told, are economic superpowers that must remain independent of modern democratic governments. The US Federal Reserve’s presumed insulation from politics affords it autonomy and credibility to control inflation and promote economic stability—or so the story goes.In The Fiscal Fed, Will Bateman offers a deeply sourced, empirical history that shows the Fed’s primary function is actually, and has always been, fiscal—sustaining the market for Treasury borrowing that makes up the difference between federal spending and federal revenue. Bateman combs Fed meeting transcripts, staff notes, financial accounts, and legal documents to trace loans and public-debt purchases since the central bank’s founding. The result is a milestone work that reveals how, for most of the Fed’s history, its transactions were aimed at government financing—either by providing cheap credit to close budget gaps or by manipulating yields on government debt. The Fed’s support for government finance is a feature, not a bug, of American economic institutions.

Public Finance and Parliamentary Constitutionalism analyses constitutionalism and public finance (tax, expenditure, audit, sovereign borrowing and monetary finance) in Anglophone parliamentary systems of government. The book surveys the history of public finance law in the UK, its export throughout the British Empire, and its entrenchment in Commonwealth constitutions. It explains how modern constitutionalism was shaped by the financial impact of warfare, welfare-state programs and the growth of central banking. It then provides a case study analysis of the impact of economic conditions on governments' financial behaviour, focusing on the UK's and Australia's responses to the financial crisis, and the judiciary's position vis-...-vis the state's financial powers. Throughout, it questions orthodox accounts of financial constitutionalism (particularly the views of A. V. Dicey) and the democratic legitimacy of public finance. Currently ignored aspects of government behaviour are analysed in-depth, particularly the constitutional role of central banks and sovereign debt markets.