Does central bank independence have a positive track record?
The theory of central bank independence was born in the 1980s from the idea that central banks should be sheltered from political pressure that could lead them to conduct a pointlessly expansionary monetary policy to try to stimulate activity . As this behaviour is expected , it leads to only a futile increase in inflation. But independent central banks are now all (United States, Canada, euro zone, United Kingdom , Sweden , Japan , Australia ) conducting pointlessly expansionary monetary policies ( since the unemployment rate is close to the structural unemployment rate), the cost of which is not inflation but financial instability ( abnormal rises in debt and asset prices ). Central bank independence has therefore not prevented monetary policies from being pointlessly expansionary. Perhaps t he answer is not independence but having central banks follow behaviour rules.