Economy of Words: Communicative Imperatives in Central Banks

Author:   Douglas R. Holmes
Publisher:   The University of Chicago Press
ISBN:  

9780226087597


Pages:   280
Publication Date:   09 December 2013
Format:   Hardback
Availability:   Out of stock   Availability explained
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Economy of Words: Communicative Imperatives in Central Banks


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Overview

Markets are artifacts of language—so Douglas R. Holmes argues in this deeply researched look at central banks and the people who run them. Working at the intersection of anthropology, linguistics, and economics, he shows how central bankers have been engaging in communicative experiments that predate the financial crisis and continue to be refined amid its unfolding turmoil—experiments that do not merely describe the economy, but actually create its distinctive features.   Holmes examines the New York District Branch of the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, Deutsche Bundesbank, and the Bank of England, among others, and shows how officials there have created a new monetary regime that relies on collaboration with the public to achieve the ends of monetary policy. Central bankers, Holmes argues, have shifted the conceptual anchor of monetary affairs away from standards such as gold or fixed exchange rates and toward an evolving relationship with the public, one rooted in sentiments and expectations. Going behind closed doors to reveal the intellectual world of central banks,Economy of Words offers provocative new insights into the way our economic circumstances are conceptualized and ultimately managed. 

Full Product Details

Author:   Douglas R. Holmes
Publisher:   The University of Chicago Press
Imprint:   University of Chicago Press
Dimensions:   Width: 1.60cm , Height: 0.20cm , Length: 2.40cm
Weight:   0.510kg
ISBN:  

9780226087597


ISBN 10:   022608759
Pages:   280
Publication Date:   09 December 2013
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Out of stock   Availability explained
The supplier is temporarily out of stock of this item. It will be ordered for you on backorder and shipped when it becomes available.

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Reviews

This remarkable ethnography of monetary policy-making by central bankers, and the academics with whom they engage intellectually, sets a new standard for the anthropology of finance. Up to now, we have lacked a careful detailed account of how economic facts are performed rigorous and empirical enough to convince those whose intellectual propensities lie elsewhere. Economy of Words is such a book. The weight of the evidence is truly overwhelming, and the breadth of the ethnography, both in the range of central banks the author has accessed and the range of materials and informants--from academic theories to policy makers to lower level data collectors to economists to the history of economic thought--is breathtaking. The political and policy implications of Holmes' claims concerning the relationship between central banks and their publics will make this one of the most talked about books of the year. --Annelise Riles, author of Collateral Knowledge


This remarkable ethnography of monetary policy making by central bankers, and the academics with whom they engage intellectually, sets a new standard for the anthropology of finance. Up to now, we have lacked a careful, detailed account of how economic facts are performed that is rigorous and empirical enough to convince those whose intellectual propensities lie elsewhere. Economy of Words is such a book. (Annelise Riles, author of Collateral Knowledge)


Author Information

Douglas R. Holmes is professor of anthropology at Binghamton University, SUNY. He is the author of Cultural Disenchantments: Worker Peasantries in Northeast Italy and Integral Europe: Fast-Capitalism, Multiculturalism, Neofascism.

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