Inside the Fed : Monetary Policy and Its Management, Martin Through Greenspan to Bernanke

Axilrod, Stephen H.

ISBN 10: 0262012499 / ISBN 13: 9780262012492

Published by MIT Press, 2009

Pages intact with possible writing/highlighting. Binding strong with minor wear. Dust jackets/supplements may not be included. Stock photo provided. Product includes identifying sticker. Better World Books: Buy Books. Do Good. Seller Inventory # 4757488-75

Synopsis:

Stephen Axilrod is the ultimate Federal Reserve insider. He worked at the Fed's Board of Governors for over thirty years and after that in private markets and as a consultant on monetary policy. With Inside the Fed, he offers his unique perspective on the inner workings of the Federal Reserve System during the last fifty years—writing about personalities as much as policy—based on his knowledge and observations of every Fed chairman since 1951.

Axilrod's discussion focuses on how the personalities of the various chairmen affected their capacity for leadership. He describes, for example, Arthur Burns's response to political pressure from the Nixon White House and Paul Volcker's radical shift to an anti-inflationary policy at the end of the 1970s—a transition in which Axilrod himself played a crucial role. As for the Greenspan years, Axilrod points to the unintended effects of the Fed's newfound "garrulousness" (the plethora of announcements and hints about policy intentions)—one of which was the Fed's loss of credibility in the aftermath of the chairman's 1996 comment about "irrational exuberance." And Axilrod incisively outlines the problems—including the subprime mess—inherited from Greenspan by the current chairman, Ben Bernanke. Great leadership in monetary policy, Axilrod says, is determined not by pure economic sophistication but by the ability to push through political and social barriers to achieve a paradigm shift in policy—and by the courage and bureaucratic moxie to pull it off.

About the Author:

Stephen H. Axilrod worked from 1952 to 1986 at the Board ofGovernors of the Federal Reserve System in Washington, D.C., rising to StaffDirector for Monetary and Financial Policy and Staff Director and Secretary ofthe Federal Open Market Committee, the Fed’s main monetary policy arm.Since 1986 he has worked in private markets and as a consultant on monetarypolicy with foreign monetary authorities.

Bibliographic Details

Title: Inside the Fed : Monetary Policy and Its ...
Publisher: MIT Press
Publication Date: 2009
Binding: Hardcover
Condition: Very Good