Sunday Spectacle XXXVIII



Central Bank Employees



The responsibilities and power of central banks vary across countries so this chart is more complicated than it seems. Charts like these probably say more about the structure of politics than economics. For example, the fact that China has very few central bankers for such a large economy pretty much nails home the point that their monetary policy is either useless or, more likely, driven by politicians. USA, with around 20,000 Federal Reserve employees, appears quite low for such a large and important economy.


(source: "In the Bank," The Economist. December 4, 2009)

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