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As international trade has grown, the role of central banks have become more and more important, and it is now impossible to understand international trade and international economies without understanding what central banks do. These largely anonymous institutions, run by invisible but fantastically powerful men (always men), have three real functions that affect their lives. Firstly, they regulate other banks and try and stop them (unsuccessfully) from the sort of skulduggery that BCCI got up to. Secondly, they control interest rates and, therefore, the strength of the currency internationally, and the cost of mortgages and borrowing money. Thirdly, they lend money to governments. This book goes behind the doors of these all-powerful institutions where gold is stored and millions and millions (and billions) are traded daily. It is a story about little-known and largely invisible powerbrokers.