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This book develops a unified framework to address a number of key issues in monetary economics and public finance.
List of contents
Introduction; 1. The central bank balance sheet: why it matters; Appendix to chapter 1: stochastic discount factors; 2. A stylized set of accounts for the Treasury, the central bank and the State; 3. Helicopter money drops; 4. The fallacy of the fiscal theory of the price level - and why it matters; Appendix to chapter 4: a formal approach to the FTPL; 5. Life at the zero lower bound and how to escape from it; 6. Why the Eurosystem isn't a proper central bank - and how to make it one.
About the author
Willem Buiter is Visiting Professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, New York. He was an academic economist for twenty-eight years. He was a founding external member of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England from 1997-2000 and has been an adviser to the IMF, the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, the European Commission, central banks and finance ministries across the world.
Summary
The book develops a unified framework to address a number of key issues in monetary economics and public finance, including how helicopter money works, when modern monetary theory makes sense, why the Eurosystem has a potentially fatal design flaw, why the fiscal theory of the price level is a fallacy and how to escape from the zero lower bound.
Additional text
'Willem Buiter is the acknowledged master of the public sector accounts. In this timely little volume, he exposes the intimate connection between the central bank and the fiscal authorities, delivering a series of provocative insights regarding the scope for monetary finance, the efficacy of 'helicopter money', the validity of the 'fiscal theory of the price level', the elimination of the interest-rate lower bound, and the flaws in the architecture of the European Monetary Union.' Charles Bean, London School of Economics
