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Introduction to
Economics
Lesson 5 / 08
Central
Banking
Central
Banking is one of the most significant, and from time to time,
controversial aspects of political economy.
However, few people know what it is, much less are they aware of
its significance. Nevertheless, in a real sense, the finances of the modern
world are controlled by the concept of central banking.
What is
Central Banking?
Central
banking is the concept that there should exist a bank within the state
[or group of states] charged with one or more of a variety of tasks
intended to enhance the financial fortunes of the relevant state [or
group of states.] Whilst it
may be publicly or privately owned, ultimate power and control resides
in the relevant government or governments.
Some of the
tasks traditionally associated with central banks include the following;
- Acting
as the government’s banker
- Control
of the money supply
- Managing
the stock of precious metals and foreign exchange.
- Acting
as regulator and supervisor of the banking industry
- Acting
as a lender of last resort to the banking industry
- Operating
a cheque clearing system
- Setting
interest rates and managing and controlling their implementation.
Most states,
and some groups of states, such as the European Union, presently have a
central bank Examples
include the U.S. Federal Reserve, which is nominally owned by private
banks, the European Central Bank, the Bank of England, and the Reserve
Bank of Australia.
History
Credit for
the creation of modern central banking is generally attributed to the
Dutch. In 1609 the
Amsterdam Wisselbank was founded to provide credit to the province of
Holland, in particular to the city of Amsterdam, and to fund the Dutch
East India Company. In
1668, Dutch businessmen helped set up what is now the world’s oldest
central bank, Sweden’s Riksbank.
The English
followed suit in 1694 with the founding of the Bank of England.
In return for holding government bonds the bank was granted the
power to issue bank notes based thereon, and to conduct banking business
generally. In effect this
gave rise to the national debt. This
was quite momentous. Previously
rulers wishing to expend money on national projects, particularly wars,
had had to raise the money themselves, secured by specie or real
property. But now the
government could obtain the money from the Bank, secured only by its own
bonds ie its promise to pay. The
concept that this money was backed by government’s access to the
wealth of the nation, including the government’s ongoing access to its
future wealth, was thus established.
In France
acceptance of the concept of central banking suffered a setback due to
the activities of John Laws [1671-1729].
Laws was a Scottish banker and economist who persuaded the French
royalty in 1716 to set up in effect a royal bank, initially called the
Banque Generale and later the Banque Royale, along similar lines to the
Bank of England. For a
while the Banque enjoyed phenomenal success and Laws was feted as a
financial genius. In a
manner reminiscent of the fame enjoyed by the recent Chairman of the
American Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan, Laws was showered with
honours; the Pope sent a special envoy to his daughter’s wedding.
However in 1720 the Banque collapsed.
The effect thereof was so traumatic to the nation that for a long
time the word ‘banque’ in French was in disfavour, the word
‘credit’ being preferred instead.
Eventually a French central bank was set up by Napoleon in 1806.
In the USA,
central banking was an issue of dispute virtually from the founding of
the nation. The Constitution gave the Federal government no specific
power to establish a central bank.
Despite objections President Washington chartered the first Bank
of the US in 1791, modeled on the Bank of England.
However opposition to the bank continued and its charter was not
renewed when it expired in 1811. However
in 1816 a further attempt to establish a national bank was successful
and the Second Bank of the US was chartered along similar lines to the
first. Despite the US
Supreme Court voting unanimously in the famous 1819 case of McCulloch v
Maryland that the Bank was constitutional, opposition to the bank was
again such that its charter too was not renewed when it expired in 1836.
Thereafter, apart from temporary measures instituted by the
Lincoln administration to finance the Civil War, the USA did not have a
central bank until the creation of the Federal Reserve in 1913.
The
Present
Presently,
central banks throughout the world are seemingly in crisis.
We can ask why this should be so.
Is it coincidently worldwide mismanagement ?
Was there an egregious, or set of egregious unfortunate events ?
Or is it that central banking is inherently flawed?
Central banks
are not all completely separate and equal.
There is a hierarchy of central banks at the head of which is the
Federal Reserve. Until the
early 1930s most central banks stood ready to redeem their currency, if
and when required, with gold. This
placed some constraint on their power to create money.
Post WW2 however, only the Federal Reserve was prepared [at least
until 1971] to do so. During
this time moreover the USA has been the world’s largest and richest
trading nation. It was convenient for the world to accept the US dollar as
the preferred foreign currency. The
actions of the Federal Reserve, particularly of its chairman, thus
became crucial.
The nominal
rationale of central banking is that by enabling governments to acquire
the monetary means to achieve their desires, the relevant economy will
develop faster and production will increase more than it otherwise
would, thereby producing the wealth to secure the money created to
achieve it. If however the
production of wealth fails to keep pace with the supply of money created
to achieve it, the currency will lose value.
In fact, this is what has happened; since 1913 the US dollar has
lost more than 95% of its value. Most,
if not all, other currencies have fared similarly. However the loss in
value has been largely steady, albeit continuous.
The real risk to central banking is runaway inflation.
The fact that
central banks have the power to create money gives rise to what
economists call ‘moral hazard’, ie bad or negative incentives.
In the case of central banking, the relevant moral hazards are
theft and irresponsibility. Economists,
even those in favour of central banking, have long recognized the
inherent danger thereto of moral hazard
They have stressed that money must not be created, in effect to
bail out losers, or otherwise merely to buy political support.
Milton Friedman [1912-2006] for instance urged that the money
supply should be permitted to increase only by a set and unchangeable
percentage each year. Governments
loudly, if somewhat dubiously, proclaim the independence of their
central bank
What then is
the cause of the seeming present crisis ?
Perhaps the most credible suggestion is that it is the fault of
Alan Greenspan, the recently retired Federal Reserve Chairman.
If a central banking system is to work as intended, it requires a
chairperson of intellect, courage and integrity.
Greenspan’s predecessor, Paul Volcker, demonstrated such
qualities. When the economy
was threatened with inflation, Volcker, to use his phrase, had taken
away the punchbowl. He had
stopped the creation of money, at the cost of considerable personal
opprobrium. Inflation had
been tamed.
In
Greenspan’s term, the problem, in the early years of the present
decade, was to cope with a boom that was coming to an end, threatening
recession. Rather than
taking the sound but unpopular step of merely easing the fall, Greenspan
had kept the boom going for several years more by the creation of ever
more easy money, creating in the process debts and deficits of a
magnitude never seen before. Perhaps
we should not have expected otherwise.
As an economist, Greenspan had written in 1966, an incisive
article in support of the gold standard, effectively condemning
virtually every principle of central banking.
When asked to explain how, in seeking the office of Chairman, he
equated such article with the holding of such position, he explained
that he no longer held such views
David
Sharp
22 April 2008
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