LOMBARD STREET (A Description of the Money Market): Popular Books by WALTER BAGEHOT : All times Bestseller Demanding Books

Revealing how we arrived at the current crisis, Perry Mehrling traces the evolution of ideas and institutions in the American banking system since the establishment of the Federal Reserve in 1913. He explains how the Fed took classic central banking wisdom from Britain and Europe and adapted it to America's unique and considerably more volatile financial conditions. Mehrling demonstrates how the Fed increasingly found itself serving as the dealer of last resort to ensure the liquidity of securities markets--most dramatically amid the recent financial crisis. Now, as fallout from the crisis forces the Fed to adapt in unprecedented ways, new principles are needed to guide it. In The New Lombard Street, Mehrling persuasively argues for a return to the classic central bankers' "money view," which looks to the money market to assess risk and restore faith in our financial system.

A financial classic, Lombard Street continues to be widely read by those with a professional interest in the finance and banking industry'--more than a century after its first publication in 1873.

Lombard's author, Walter Bagehot (1826 - 1877), was one of the most influential journalists of the mid-Victorian period and wrote extensively about literature, government and economic affairs. Bagehot was an economist, political analyst and editor-in-chief of The Economist. Among his voluminous writings, his most reputable offerings are the two books, The English Constitution and this publication, Lombard Street.

Lombard Street: A Description of the Money Market, started life in 1858 as a series of articles that Bagehot wrote for The Economist. It was rewritten twice and revised with extensive labor and care before finally being published in 1873. Lombard Street is thus a departure into economic and financial studies, applying keen observation and analysis of the business of banking. Bagehot dissected the Bank of England's foundations, economic incentives, goals, and functions. It might perhaps not be too much to say that the theory of a one-reserve system of banking, and how to work it, originated in Lombard Street and the articles that were its foundation. Subsequently, the constitutions of most national Central Banks were reinvented and forever changed as a consequence. The U.S. Federal Reserve and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have since been influenced by the enduring independent thought and extraordinary clarity provided by Bagehot in this famous book.

This new edition has been completely re-typeset, correcting many editorial issues inherent within the original print. Additionally, we have also included the 1844 Bank Charter as it was in-acted at the time, referred to in the text as "Peel's Act" and at times, "Act of 1844", as we feel this may be of some benefit to the reader.