Better Macroeconomic Policy

Abstract

Macroeconomic policy set the stage for the crisis (see Chapter 1), and reforming macroeconomic policy must be part of any cure that would prevent future crises. In the first years of the twenty-first century macroeconomic policymakers had effectively assumed that the financial intermediaries would function as passive transmitters of policy measures to the broader economy. Indeed, monetary policymakers’ economic models usually made little or no reference to finance (Adrian and Shin 2008a: 301; Economist 2009b).