Central banks and financial markets : the declining power of US monetary policy Hasan Cömerts timely book reaches us during the prolonged conditions of the global great recession. By providing a thorough and detailed econometric analysis of the institutional and historical developments of the hegemonic leader of capitalism Cömert reveals that the simplistic monetary policy tools of the central banks of the so called modern great moderation era are over and we are now at the crossroads of a paradigmatic shift. Cömerts book suggests itself as one of the first leading examples of this shift. (Erinç Yeldan Yasar University Turkey). This provocative book shows that the Federal Reserve has in the last four decades gradually lost influence over credit and financial markets. This argument supported by institutional analysis and econometric tests has two explosive implications: first Federal Reserve policy did not cause the subprime crisis; second central banks no longer have instruments for intervening in economies whose growth they are now expected to restore. Anyone concerned with the future of global capitalism should consider Cömerts work as a matter of urgency. (Gary Dymski Leeds University Business School UK and University of California Riverside US). Prior to the outbreak of the financial crisis in 2008 mainstream economists celebrated a New Consensus on monetary policy in which independent central banks were assumed able to bring about a Great Moderation of low inflation and high economic growth by manipulating short term interest rates. In this important and interesting book Hasan Cömert demonstrates convincingly through institutional analysis and econometrics that central banks lost control of the price and quantity of credit starting two decades before this celebration. He shows that central banks themselves through their support of financial market deregulation and globalization helped bring about both monetary policy impotence and the global crisis. Its a must read. (James Crotty University of Massachusetts Amherst US).