The writer is an assistant professor at Brown University and the author of ‘Bankers’ Trust’ on central bank co-operation in crises
The importance of the US Federal Reserve to the world is not just a matter of its central role in steering the world’s largest economy and setting the most important benchmark interest rates.
In times of crisis and turmoil, the Fed provides crucial support to other countries through what is known as swap lines — agreements between central banks to exchange currencies. An essential part of the plumbing of the global financial system, they can provide access for stressed economies to what is still the world’s reserve currency, preventing a crisis tipping into deeper catastrophe.
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