The New Lombard Street: How the Fed Became the Dealer of Last Resort
by Perry Mehrling · Princeton University Press
Mehrling updates Bagehot for modern market-based finance. He traces how the Fed moved from lender of last resort to 'dealer of last resort' in 2008, using money-market balance sheets and a history of Fed thinking since 1913.
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More resources on Central Banking
Economics of Money and Banking
Columbia University course that analyses the monetary system through balance sheets: the hierarchy of money, payment clearing, repo and Eurodollar markets, dealer market making, central bank crisis operations, foreign exchange and swaps. Learners can read financial crises and central bank interventions as balance-sheet events.
Macro Musings with David Beckworth
A long-running weekly interview podcast with current and former central bankers, Fed staff and monetary economists. Episodes cover Fed operating frameworks, balance sheet policy, the Treasury market, independence and the global dollar. The full archive is free.
Unelected Power: The Quest for Legitimacy in Central Banking and the Regulatory State
A former Bank of England deputy governor asks when unelected central bankers should hold power in a democracy. Tucker proposes design principles for mandates, independence, accountability and emergency lender-of-last-resort powers. It covers the 'debates over their mandates' part of the topic at full depth, from a practitioner who is also a political theorist. This is the 2019 paperback.
Lombard Street: A Description of the Money Market
Bagehot's 1873 account of the London money market and the Bank of England. It is the source of the classic lender-of-last-resort rule: in a panic, lend freely, against good collateral, at a high rate. Free as a public-domain ebook.
Economics of Money and Banking (Perry Mehrling, full lecture course)
Mehrling's Columbia/Barnard course, filmed in full. It teaches the 'money view': the central bank as clearinghouse, fed funds, repo, eurodollars, the dealer of last resort, and the 2007–09 crisis, all worked through balance sheets. Over 100 video segments, free.
The Fed Explained: What the Central Bank Does
The Federal Reserve's own guide to its structure and its five functions: monetary policy, financial stability, supervision of banks, payment and settlement systems, and consumer protection. This is the 11th edition (2026), free as a full PDF or by chapter.