Books on economics and banking are generally viewed as being abstruse, whose readers are confined mainly to academia and the business world. In this case we have a notable exception. The so-called Global Financial Crisis raised the profile of central banks around the world. While books about central banks were, of course, published prior to the events of 2008-2009, none captured the attention of the wider public until the monetary authorities intervened on a massive scale and continue to do so well over a decade since the near collapse of the global financial system. A new set of books emerged, with titles like The Only Game in Town, or After the Music Stopped, which used a chronological approach to describe what central banks did as well as contemplating the implications of the shift from conventional to unconventional monetary policies. The approach of these books is largely descriptive and the analysis is largely rooted in depicting the evolution of central banking activities in select countries over time. So yes, it is an informative, yet contentious book to read, but well worth the time. I do not agree with everything in the book and for this reason am indulging in the rebel-rouser, Yanis Varoufakis's, books as well. However, I expected some big differences, but I only encountered remarkable agreements between two authors who never met. But I'm still digging.

If you wish to have a real understanding of history - look for the influence of the bankers. This is the key to understanding the past, the present and the future. The ‘scam’ of the money-lenders is the ability to literally create money from nothing, and then lend and accumulate interest on “credit,” and then re-lend that interest for further interest, in perpetuity, that creates pervasive, worldwide debt, from the individual, to the family, to the entire state. As time went on, the Romans took to using, instead of cattle, irregular lumps of copper or bronze. These lumps were called aes rude (rough metal) and had to be weighed for each transaction.Financial stability. While early central banks helped fund the government’s debt, they were also private entities that engaged in banking activities. Because they held the deposits of other banks they came to serve as a banker’s bank, facilitating transactions between banks. They became the repository for most banks in the banking system because of their large reserves and extensive networks of correspondent banks. These factors eventually allowed them to become a lender of last resort in the face of a banking panic. A later wave of central banks, e.g., the Federal Reserve in 1913 and the Swiss National Bank in 1907, were founded explicitly to provide financial stability. Stephen Mitford Goodson recently passed away and something about his eulogy inspired me to find this book. Rudyard Kipling’s poem If was included in the eulogy at his funeral and it immediately triggered my curiosity. The approach taken is a fresh one and will be useful, especially to scholars who are interested in specific areas where central banks have played an important role in economic development over time.” (Pierre Siklos, EH Net, eh.net, November, 2019)

Stefano Ugolini, The Evolution of Central Banking: Theory and History. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017. xiii + 330 pp. €135 (hardcover), ISBN: 978-1-137-48524-3. The cultural and material progress of a civilization will often relate to the degree by which it is free from the influence of debt, and the degradation that results when the money-lenders are permitted to abuse their power. Hence, Goodson shows that both World Wars, the Napoleonic wars, the American Revolution, the rise and fall of Julius Caesar, the regicide of Charles I of England, the overthrow of Gaddafi in Libya and the revolution against Tsar Nicholas, among much else in history relate to this “Hidden Hand”.Ugolini concludes as follows: “central banking is deeply rooted in the economic and political context in which it happens to operate, and that the evolution of the former closely depends on the evolution of the latter” (p. 271). Readers of “institutionalist” style books of central banking would have reached the same conclusions. Hopefully, this is welcome as it means that the functional and institutional approaches yield similar results but this also means that no fundamentally new insights about the evolution of central banking are generated. I would … recommend this book as a central reference to evolutionary economists (and evolutionary institutionalists, by extension) to make more thoughts on and build analytical models of central banking functions from an evolutionary point of view.” (Burak Erkut, Journal of Evolutionary Economics, July 4, 2020) This book is bound to be controversial and engender strong reactions. Why would a seemingly arid subject matter such as the history of central banking and of the monetary system give rise to such strong reactions? I do not have the expertise to say whether Goodson’s findings are accurate, but I do know that the raw nerves he touches are on account of central banking and the monetary system created thereunder being at the core of the persistent profound and inhumane differences in wealth distribution within any given country, and among countries. For this reason, for several years, my Party and I have argued that South Africa should reform its central banking and monetary system, even if that means placing our country out of step with iniquitous world standards.