Central banks have pumped money into the economy, but it’s no substitute for democracy | Quinn Slobodian

To build a fairer, greener society, money must be made to serve the people, not the other way around

In the past few months, the world's central banks, above all the US Federal Reserve, have rescued the global economy from complete collapse for the second time in a generation. Wading unto the breach and armed with the knowledge of how close capitalism came to a system failure in 2008, they have fired the big bazookas" of monetary policy, pumping trillions of dollars into the world's giant pool of money, effectively creating wealth out of nothing.

Since 2 March, the Fed's total assets have leapt by more than half. Since 2008, its balance sheet has grown to 30% of the size of the US economy. Central bankers seem confident their actions will find public approval. A firefighter has never been criticised for using too much water," the governor of the Bank of Canada said.

The stock market's worst fears seem to have been allayed by congressional action and the Fed's promised bond-buying spree

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Quinn Slobodian is an associate professor of history at Wellesley College, Massachusetts