Let me start at the end of this story. The end of monetary history was supposed to be an independent central bank pursuing implicitly or explicitly an inflation target under the guise of operational independence. Other aspects of financial policy and even fiscal policy could be partitioned off into a box that said: Do Not Open. The central bank could pursue its target in a rule-based manner and get agents to bind their behaviour with the central bank’s objectives. This alloy of jointly determined beliefs and targets would tend to ensure stability in the face of shocks. It became not so much a matter of getting people to do what you want but getting people to do your job for you: if people always expected stability following any sequence of shocks, they would not need so much proof from recessions and painful interest rate hikes that central bankers really meant business. Belief, even in a cynical age, can still be a powerful weapon.