Do They Walk On Water?: Federal Reserve Chairmen And The Fed

A crowd gathers. People crane their necks. Cameras flash. The limo door opens. Who is it--Mick Jagger? Oprah? Tiger Woods? No. It's Alan Greenspan--and the crowd still goes wild. Many felt Greenspan walked on water during his lengthy term as Chairman of the Federal Reserve System. But was he a genius or, as Tolstoy might portray him, simply someone who could portray confidence while attempting to captain an uncontrollable ship? In this book, economist Leonard Santow casts a steely eye on the Fed and its five most recent chairmen--Arthur Burns, G. William Miller, Paul Volcker, Alan Greenspan, and Ben Bernanke. Along the way, readers learn what function the Fed performs and why, how monetary policy differs from fiscal policy, which levers the Fed uses to change the money supply and control inflation, and more. This is one of the few books to explain the inner workings of the Fed and its Open Market Operations, while evaluating its most recent chiefs in their efforts to keep inflation at bay and the economy humming. Written in an easy and accessible style, the book also contains some prescriptions for smoothing the choppy economic seas going forward, and insights on the subprime mess and the securities that helped bring down the real estate house of cards. Chapters cover how the Fed works, analyses of each of the recent five Fed chiefs together with extensive economic data that describes their successes and failures numerically, what we can learn from the Fed's recent mistakes, and policy recommendations. Santow's insights, and the data that supports them, show us that while Fed chiefs probably don't walk on water, having the right Fed chief hold the post at the right time can help bringthe country sustained prosperity and economic opportunity.