Banking Reform

Banking on Reform examines the political determinants of recent reforms to monetary policy institutions in the industrial democracies. With these reforms, political parties have sought to draw on the political credibility of an independent central bank to cope with electoral consequences of economic internalization and deindustrialization. New Zealand and Italy made the initial efforts to grant their central banks independence. More recently, France, Spain, Britain, and Sweden have reformed their central banks' independence. Additionally, members of the European Union have implemented a single currency, with an independent European central bank to administer monetary policy. Banking on Reform stresses the politics surrounding the choice of these institutions, specifically the motivations of political parties. Where intraparty conflicts have threatened the party's ability to hold office, politicians have adopted an independent central bank. Where political parties have been secluded from the political consequences of economic change, reform has been thwarted or delayed. The drive toward a single currency also reflects these political concerns. By delegating monetary policy to the European level, politicians in the member states removed a potentially divisive issue from the domestic political agenda, allowing parties to rebuild their support constructed on the basis of other issues. William T. Bernhard provides a variety of evidence to support his argument, such as in-depth case accounts of recent central bank reforms in Italy and Britain, the role of the German Bundesbank in the policy process, and the adoption of the single currency in Europe. Additionally, he utilizes quantitative and statistical tests to enhance his argument. This book will appeal to political scientists, economists, and other social scientists interested in the political and institutional consequences of economic globalization. William T. Bernhard is Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

This book is a wide-ranging and timely overview of the contemporary Chinese banking system. It charts the vast changes in Chinese banking from before China’s admission to the WTO in 2001 to more recent regulatory reform and developments in the shadow banking sector. The book begins with an economic history of the mono-banking system, and a critical discussion of reforms taken by the government in preparation for China’s entry to the WTO. The second part of the book discusses banking regulation and government policy during and after the global financial crisis in 2008-2009 and their impact on banking, including recent developments. Finally, the book concludes an empirical analysis of the impact of banking reforms on a number of important issues, including bank efficiency, capital structure, competition and financial stability, and risk taking behaviour, and a review of the relevance of shadow banking and internet banking.

A central bank needs authority and a sphere of independent action. But a central bank cannot become an unelected czar with sweeping, unaccountable discretionary power. How can we balance the central bank's authority and independence with needed accountability and constraints? Drawn from a 2015 Hoover Institution conference, this book features distinguished scholars and policy makers' discussing this and other key questions about the Fed.

"Eminent historian of economics Elmus Wicker examines the events which spurred a series of banking panics beginning in 1893-94, that led to the creation of the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank twenty years later. A serious lacuna exists in the literature on the origins of the Federal Reserve System. What is absent is a fair appraisal of the role Senator Nelson Aldrich, prominent Rhode Island senator, played. Carter Glass captured the acclaim while asserting that Aldrich be granted equal billing with Glass as "fathers" of the Federal Reserve System."--BOOK JACKET.

Excerpt from Banking Reform This volume is intended to furnish a plain, untechnical exposition of the defects of our present banking and currency system, together with a discussion of the remedies. Not since the Civil War has the country been confronted with a monetary and banking question of greater importance to business prosperity. The adequacy of the banking system affects the everyday existence of the laborer, farmer and merchant. The unnecessary expense of obtaining credit under a bad banking system is borne by the borrower; the impossibility of getting loans in a time of panic shuts up factory and shop and falls most severely upon the wage-earner who loses his employment. Unemployment is largely increased by financial panics. The reason for the existence of the National Citizens' League, which is made up of business men, is found in the fact that the reform affects the borrowing business man more than the lending bank; the bank can always protect itself by sacrificing the borrower. There is practically no class in the community not directly concerned in the outcome of this campaign of education. This book explains the effects of our banking system and of its reform on every class. It has long been seen that our currency is needlessly inelastic; that our credit system is even more dangerously inelastic; that our large gold supply is ineffectively used; that the scattering of reserves forbids co-operative action by the banks in times of stress; that our rigid reserve system even breeds panics; that state banks and trust companies are doing commercial banking but without cooperation with national banks; that our Independent Sub-Treasury often attacks the reserves of banks at times of danger and works without business-like economy and efficiency; that idle funds of banks drift to New York and on call loans feed stock speculation; and that our trade is greatly hampered by lack of American banking facilities in foreign countries. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."

The Routledge Companion to Banking Regulation and Reform provides a prestigious cutting edge international reference work offering students, researchers and policy makers a comprehensive guide to the paradigm shift in banking studies since the historic financial crisis in 2007. The transformation in banking over the last two decades has not been authoritatively and critically analysed by the mainstream academic literature. This unique collection brings together a multi-disciplinary group of leading authorities in the field to analyse and investigate post-crisis regulation and reform. Representing the wide spectrum of non-mainstream economics and finance, topics range widely from financial innovation to misconduct in banking, varieties of Eurozone banking to reforming dysfunctional global banking as well as topical issues such as off-shore financial centres, Libor fixing, corporate governance and the Dodd-Frank Act. Bringing together an authoritative range of international experts and perspectives, this invaluable body of heterodox research work provides a comprehensive compendium for researchers and academics of banking and finance as well as regulators and policy makers concerned with the global impact of financial institutions.