PRIESTS OF PROSPERITY
How Central Bankers Transformed the Postcommunist World
Juliet Johnson
Speaking Tiger
284 pages; Rs 895
In the popular discourse, the United States Federal Reserve is often held up as a shining example of a truly independent central bank. The reality, though, is far from it.
In a widely cited paper, economists N Nergiz Dinçer and Barry Eichengreen find that the Fed, a supposed beacon of independence, is one of the least independent central banks in the world. Surprisingly, the most independent ones are those of the Kyrgyz Republic, Latvia, Hungary, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
How did this come about? How did some of