Karl Brunner, writing in the early 1980s, rather unflatteringly referred to the “mystique” of central banking that “thrives on the pervasive impression that Central Banking is an esoteric art … The esoteric nature of the art is moreover revealed by an inherent impossibility to articulate its insights in explicit and intelligible words and sentences”.
Similarly, when a US senator said that he understood a comment made by Federal Reserve Bank Chairman Alan Greenspan, Greenspan famously replied: “If you understood what I said, I must have misspoke”. However, Greenspan was in fact at the forefront of what Alan Blinder called the “quiet revolution” or the opening up of central banks during the 1990s.