Author: Christopher Houghton Budd
Pages: 17
Originally published 1989

An essay concerning the role of central banking in modern society from the point of view of a single world-wide economy. What would happen to central banks in such a circumstance, a circumstance that has underlain modern conditions since 1919. The two main questions are whether the central bank works from the centre out, or from the periphery in, and should it be an agent of the state or of the economy more directly? Moreover, how would central banking be affected by the idea that money today has become book-keeping. Is it the role of central banks to manage money flows or to provide information? The paper concludes with commentary on the consequences, in a one-world economy, for money emission and credit creation.