The Paradox of Risk – Leaving the Monetary Policy Comfort Zone

In the decades before the global financial crisis struck in 2007, economic policymakers kept to the primary goal of containing inflation and public deficits. Today, after years of sluggish economic recovery, the time has come for that prevailing consensus to give way to a new strategy of monetary stimulus to spur economic growth and encourage risk-taking by investors. In this book, Angel Ubide surveys the actions taken by central banks after the crisis and draws lessons from the unpredictable interaction of markets, countries, and financial institutions. He concludes that fear of another crippling crisis has caused central banks to become dangerously risk-averse and overly complacent about dampened economic growth. He advances the provocative thesis that monetary policymakers, accustomed to a "boring" role in managing economies, must now leave their "comfort zone" and embrace risk as a necessary requirement for growth.