Inside the Fed: Monetary Policy and Its Management, Martin through Greenspan to Bernanke: Stephen H. Axilrod

• Filed under: Recommended

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Axilrod, a longtime Federal Reserve System veteran, provides an insider’s perspective on how the Fed has evolved over the past 50 years. Revealing the impact of personalities and their responses to political, social and bureaucratic situations, he explores such key topics such as money supply vs. interest rates, monetary base and reserve aggregates vs. money-market conditions, and increased emphasis on real-world variables rather than on monetary variables as indicators and guides for policy. The book is based mostly on anecdotal recollections of personal interactions with central bank leaders and others as they managed policy discussions and implementation. Despite the involvement of other influential parties, Axilrod’s view is that chairmen took the lead in policy formation but had limited influence on the day-to-day operating targets. He also offers his thoughts on the future of the organization, noting that leaders will need to take a more direct account of international markets in making judgments about policy and its management. Informative and insightful, this view of the inner workings of the Fed will appeal to anyone with an interest in economics or curious about the organization’s recent progression. (Mar.)
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Review
“An intimate account of the Fed’s depressing decline in the Seventies and dramatic comeback in the Volcker years when the central bank triumphed over the biggest threat to the U.S. economy since the Great Depression. Now that the old enemy, stagflation, is stirring once more, the lessons Stephen Axilrod draws from past battles couldn’t be timelier.” - Sylvia Nasar, author of A Beautiful Mind “No one seriously interested in American monetary policy in the post-World War II era can ignore what Axilrod recounts here.” - Benjamin M. Friedman, William Joseph Maier Professor of Political Economy, Harvard University”

"An intimate account of the Fed’s depressing decline in the seventies and dramatic comeback in the Volcker years when the central bank triumphed over the biggest threat to the U.S. economy since the Great Depression. Now that the old enemy, stagflation, is stirring once more, the lessons Stephen Axilrod draws from past battles couldn’t be timelier."
—Sylvia Nasar, author of A Beautiful Mind

"Informative and insightful, this view of the inner workings of the Fed will appeal to anyone with an interest in economics of curious about the organization’s recent progression."
— Publishers Weekly

"Stephen Axilrod’s aptly titled book is, indeed, the ultimate Federal Reserve insider’s account. Leaving aside only the chairmen under whom he served, no one played a greater role in shaping U.S. monetary policy during these turbulent years or had a closer view of how the policy was made. And, true to the author, Axilrod’s book is full of plain common sense about central banking, economic policy, and much beyond. No one seriously interested in American monetary policy in the post-World War II era can ignore what Axilrod recounts here."
—Benjamin M. Friedman, William Joseph Maier Professor of Political Economy, Harvard University

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Ben Bernanke’s Fed: The Federal Reserve After Greenspan: Ethan S. Harris

• Filed under: Recommended

Editorial Reviews

Review
"…an excellent description of what the Fed does and why we need it. He takes a fresh look at Greenspan and provides solid analysis of Bernanke’s record as a scholar and policy maker." –Boston Globe

…an excellent introduction to the art of central banking, and in particular to Mr Bernanke’s thinking… –The Financial Times, August 10, 2008

Ben Bernanke’s swearing in as Federal Reserve chairman in 2006 marked the end of Alan Greenspan’s long, legendary career. To date, the new chair has garnered mixed reviews. Business economists see him as the best-qualified successor to Greenspan, while many traders and investors worry that he’s too academic for the job. Meanwhile, ordinary Americans do not even know who he is.

How will Bernanke’s leadership affect the Fed’s actions in the coming years? How will Bernanke build on Greenspan’s success, but also put his own stamp on the Fed? What will all this imply for businesses and investors? In Ben Bernanke’s Fed, Ethan Harris provides exceptional insights into these crucial issues.

Engaging and discerning, this book demystifies the man who has stepped into what many describe as the second most powerful job in America.

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The Monetary Policy of the Federal Reserve: A History (Studies in Macroeconomic History): Robert L. Hetzel

• Filed under: Recommended

Editorial Reviews

Review
“The Monetary Policy of the Federal Reserve: A History is a comprehensive study of the evolution of monetary policy practiced by the Federal Reserve since its founding nearly a century ago. Hetzel brings a unique perspective to this material, a monetarist point of view rooted in his U of Chicago training, but a view profoundly influenced by an understanding of monetary policy in practice acquired as a life-long policy advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. The story is one of a nominal anchor for monetary policy lost with the collapse of the gold standard and found after decades of monetary turbulence in the priority that the Federal Reserve puts on low inflation and in anchoring inflation expectations. Hetzel enriches the story with remarkable insights about Federal Reserve behavior and with key insights from the modern New Neoclasscial Synthesis (New Keynesian) theory of monetary policy. This is an amazing story, one that Hetzel tells in great detail and with great enthusiasm.”
Marvin Goodfriend, Carnegie Mellon University

“An invaluable historical account of the history of U.S. monetary policy under the Federal Reserve System.”
Robert G. King, Boston University

“Robert Hetzel’s chronicle of the turning points in Federal Reserve conduct of monetary policy illuminates the problems that successive chairmen from William McChesney Martin on encountered in transforming the central bank into the modern Fed. Hetzel describes three monetary experiments beginning with a detour to the real bills doctrine, followed by decades of stop-go experience until the Paul Volcker-Alan Greenspan disinflation that ushered in a new monetary standard. Over time the Fed learned rule-like behavior that created expectations by the public of low stable inflation that is now the nominal anchor for a fiat money regime. It differentiates monetary policy as practiced before the 1980s from its practices since. Hetzel has written a path-breaking study.”
Anna J. Schwartz, National Bureau of Economic Research

Product Description
The Monetary Policy of the Federal Reserve details the evolution of the monetary standard from the start of the Federal Reserve through the end of the Greenspan era. The book places that evolution in the context of the intellectual and political environment of the time. By understanding the fitful process of replacing a gold standard with a paper money standard, the conduct of monetary policy becomes a series of experiments useful for understanding the fundamental issues concerning money and prices. How did the recurrent monetary instability of the 20th century relate to the economic instability and to the associated political and social turbulence? After the detour in policy represented by FOMC chairmen Arthur Burns and G. William Miller, Paul Volcker and Alan Greenspan established the monetary standard originally foreshadowed by William McChesney Martin, who became chairman in 1951. Monetary Policy explains in a straightforward way the emergence and nature of the modern, inflation-targeting central bank.

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The Monetary Policy of the Federal Reserve: A History (Studies in Macroeconomic History): Robert L. Hetzel

• Filed under: Recommended

Editorial Reviews

Review
“The Monetary Policy of the Federal Reserve: A History is a comprehensive study of the evolution of monetary policy practiced by the Federal Reserve since its founding nearly a century ago. Hetzel brings a unique perspective to this material, a monetarist point of view rooted in his U of Chicago training, but a view profoundly influenced by an understanding of monetary policy in practice acquired as a life-long policy advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. The story is one of a nominal anchor for monetary policy lost with the collapse of the gold standard and found after decades of monetary turbulence in the priority that the Federal Reserve puts on low inflation and in anchoring inflation expectations. Hetzel enriches the story with remarkable insights about Federal Reserve behavior and with key insights from the modern New Neoclasscial Synthesis (New Keynesian) theory of monetary policy. This is an amazing story, one that Hetzel tells in great detail and with great enthusiasm.”
Marvin Goodfriend, Carnegie Mellon University

“An invaluable historical account of the history of U.S. monetary policy under the Federal Reserve System.”
Robert G. King, Boston University

“Robert Hetzel’s chronicle of the turning points in Federal Reserve conduct of monetary policy illuminates the problems that successive chairmen from William McChesney Martin on encountered in transforming the central bank into the modern Fed. Hetzel describes three monetary experiments beginning with a detour to the real bills doctrine, followed by decades of stop-go experience until the Paul Volcker-Alan Greenspan disinflation that ushered in a new monetary standard. Over time the Fed learned rule-like behavior that created expectations by the public of low stable inflation that is now the nominal anchor for a fiat money regime. It differentiates monetary policy as practiced before the 1980s from its practices since. Hetzel has written a path-breaking study.”
Anna J. Schwartz, National Bureau of Economic Research

Product Description
The Monetary Policy of the Federal Reserve details the evolution of the monetary standard from the start of the Federal Reserve through the end of the Greenspan era. The book places that evolution in the context of the intellectual and political environment of the time. By understanding the fitful process of replacing a gold standard with a paper money standard, the conduct of monetary policy becomes a series of experiments useful for understanding the fundamental issues concerning money and prices. How did the recurrent monetary instability of the 20th century relate to the economic instability and to the associated political and social turbulence? After the detour in policy represented by FOMC chairmen Arthur Burns and G. William Miller, Paul Volcker and Alan Greenspan established the monetary standard originally foreshadowed by William McChesney Martin, who became chairman in 1951. Monetary Policy explains in a straightforward way the emergence and nature of the modern, inflation-targeting central bank.

$Order From Amazon and save money$