Central Bank Independence

Update March 26 2026. This is an essay resulting from my presentation at the Peterson Institute conference “Central Bank Independence in Practice” Oct 31 2025. Independence is not an absolute virtue. It must come with accountability and a limited mandate and tools. To achieve the precommitment that independence is supposed to produce, and to solve the problems with the contemporary Fed, we need stronger limitations, not just independence. A shorter but better edited version of the essay appears in National Affairs 67, Spring 2026.