From the Age of Rentier Tranquility to the New Age of Deep Uncertainty: The Metamorphosis of Central Bank Policy in Modern Financialized Economies

Abstract

Abstract: Inspired by institutionalist historical typology, this article traces the evolution of macroeconomic policy and macro performance primarily through the lenses of what happened with the behavior of central bank policy since the time of the publication of John Kenneth Galbraith’s The Age of Uncertainty. In contrast to the traditional mainstream approach of addressing the impact of monetary policy, this paper points to and analyzes its influence through the angle of central bank policy’s effect on income distribution in conditioning macroeconomic performance.