Felix Kurz

Be it through banking crises or inflation, debt brakes or interest rate debates: The topic of monetary policy has become part of everyday politics. The realisation has long since spread that money is not a neutral medium of exchange, but also an instrument of political rule. Nevertheless, there is still a lack of awareness of what a democratic monetary policy could look like.

This is where Stefan Eich comes in with his book. Die W&auml,hrung der Politik tells the political history of ideas about money from ancient Greece to the present day as a history of monetary policy crises.

Eich examines monetary crises and the political theories of money by Aristotle, John Locke, Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Karl Marx and John Maynard Keynes. This journey through history takes us through the currency crisis of 1797 and the hyperinflation of the interwar period.

Last but not least, Eich conveys the paradoxical power of today's central banks, which organise unprecedented rescue operations and yet are dependent on private banks. In the face of this challenge, it is worthwhile to strengthen the democratic control of credit creation and to dare more monetary democracy.