The central bank has very little power over the economy actually. It basically only has one lever and it is akin to a wrecking ball. It's job is to clean up the mess, not control the economy.
>The central bank has very little power over the economy actually.
I disagree. Any organization that can unilaterally set interest rates and add infinite assets to its balance sheet (two actions capable of moving the largest markets significantly) has tremendous amounts of control over the economy.
The vast majority of people are just unaware how much of an impact monetary policy has on their behavior.
Fed is 98% talk and 2% action.