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Bob Woodward called his biography of Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan Maestro for two reasons. First, Greenspan is a musician. He started out as a Julliard-trained jazz sax man. "He wasn't a good improviser," Woodward reports. And while the other guys got stoned all night, Greenspan "read economics and business books and eventually became the band's bookkeeper." He also cultivated powerful pals, like Ayn Rand, whose coterie dubbed the dour young man "The Undertaker."
More profoundly, Greenspan is a maestro, a conductor, exquisitely attuned to every instrument in the political and economic orchestra. He rules by consensus, but with a firm hand and notoriously inscrutable words. Marvelously, Woodward relates that Greenspan had to propose twice to his wife, the violinist-turned-TV news star Andrea Mitchell, before she understood: "His verbal obscurity and caution were so ingrained that Mitchell didn't even know that he had asked her to marry him." Woodward gives us the inside story of what Greenspan really thinks and how he outmaneuvered the most ruthless politicians on earth in some of the hairiest times imaginable, from the 1987 stock market crash to the 1994-95 Mexican crisis to the stomach-churning turn of the century. It turns out that for all his awesome knowledge of monetary minutiae, the Fed chief literally relies on "a pain in the pit of my stomach" to make decisions. "At times, he found his body sensed danger before his head," writes Woodward. The Fed chief also adapts Einstein's technique to economics, hunting for discrepancies as keys to deeper theories. Einstein made breakthroughs out of bent light; Greenspan deduced productivity gains that government statisticians had overlooked for years. (The gains appeared when Greenspan made the statisticians calculate productivity by business sector, the way it's done in the real world.)
Woodward's prose is cool and rational, not exuberant. But if you're into economics and politics, you'll find a rich gossip trove here. Who knew Reagan had a draft of a presidential order to shut down Wall Street trading at hand in 1987? Scary! Reading Maestro is better than sitting with Greenspan in his famous tub as he charts your future--it's like being right there inside his head. --Tim Appelo
Book Description
Perhaps the last Washington secret is how the Federal Reserve and its enigmatic chairman, Alan Greenspan, operate. In Maestro, Bob Woodward uses his proven interviewing and research techniques to take you inside the Fed and Greenspan's thinking. Woodward presents the Greenspan years as a gripping narrative, a remarkable portrait of a man who has become the symbol of American economic preeminence.
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Woodward's bestselling "The Agenda" presented a thrilling, intimate portrait of the making of economic policy during President Clinton's first year in office. The author now returns to the economic arena to examine why and how the present boom came to be.
Customer Reviews:
"The nurturing of capital and property ownership.".......2007-09-10
While there are some interesting tidbits throughout, ie Alan Greenspans association with Ayn Rand, the familiar names of the politically entrenched and the precarious state our nations economic machinations, this book was a bit boring. What I did find fascinating was the level of Ivy League ambition in our nations capital and Greenspans savvy manuevering therein.
Maestro Review .......2007-08-19
Among collegiate literature which I have been exposed to, I have found Bob Woodward's Maestro to be one of the most informative and educational. With this simple and easy to understand narrative, I have been taken inside the doors of the Federal Reserve, and have been given a picture of how the FOMC truly operates. I feel more equipped to discuss and express opinion towards the operations of the Fed. Upon the completion of this book, I sat back with a sense of gratification, in my newly acquired, practical understanding of the U.S. economy. Woodward was able to portray Monetary Policy in a sense that really applied to my level of thinking.
With an inside look at the decisions of Alan Greenspan and his role as chairman of the Federal Reserve, I was stuck with a sense of amazement watching this man operate mathematically and politically, still maintaining a sense of pure awareness and concern for the long-term affects of his resolutions. I would definitely recommend this book to any reader in search of a practical and realistic understanding of the economic engine which drives the U.S.
I Can't Believe I LOVED a Book on Greenspan!.......2007-04-10
I read this book wanting to be better informed about how The Fed and Greenspan operate, and wound up being nicely informed and entertained. Understanding how banks, the White House and political appointments co-exist in the field of economics, I never thought I would ever use the phrase "hard-to-put-down" in connection with an economics/banking book but this one really did it for me. It is a genuine page turner and definitely Woodward's most underrated and under-discussed books. (No caller mentioned this work during his 3-hour C-Span interview a few months back.) Get your hands on a copy of this book and prepare for an interesting and enjoyable ride. My one complaint: I wish it were longer. Although this book answered all my "Fed" questions, I wished its time track would continue to the present, or perhaps delve a little deeper into the past. But this minor complaint notwithstanding, the book was an excellent and engaging read.
Maestro.......2006-12-02
First, a brief note about what others have stated about the author and his relationship with the "establishment." Bob Woodward has always gotten close to the sources and heart of the story. It seems Woodward is inside and part of the system much moreso than than simply observing and reporting about it from the outside. In "Maestro," perhaps such conjecture is irrelevant. (Some biographers are more sympathetic to the subject.) If one is on the inside he/she has greater access to corroborated information and gets to know what's really going on behind the scenes.
The downside is that a person can also develop relationships with the people they write about (e.g. become friends, or admiring acquaintances). Insider or not, Woodward is and has been....a part of the establishment. But this isn't necessarily a reason to take anything away from him in this book. Woodward provides lots of details into Greenspan, the FOMC, and daily working of the Fed, as well as the politics and motivations behind individual and institutional actions.
This bio starts with brief glimpses into Greenspan's parents, his upbringing, and school days. It then moves to his young adulthood and formative years. The young Greenspan was 26 when he met philosopher and novelist Ayn Rand. He held many discussions with her and became a part of her inner circle. Then, as now, Greenspan believes in the philosophy of "Logical Positivism," which asserts that "nothing could be known rationally with total certainty."
"Maestro" spends a lot of time on the workings, structure, and politics of the Fed. As for the structure of the Federal Reserve Board, the President appoints board members to the Fed and the Senate confirms them, to a term of 14 years. These lengthy terms are designed to position the board members above politics. The appointments however, are influential and political. The Secretary of Treasury traditionally acts as a liaison between the administration and board members.
The FOMC is the Federal Open Market Committee, (then) chaired by By Greenspan. The FOMC has 12 voting members, seven of which which, are Fed Governors. 5 of are presidents (out of a total of twelve) of the Federal Reserve district banks in the U.S. The FOMC meets every six weeks to discuss and set the the short-term funds rate.
This book also notes how Greenspan's statements are interpreted by the media and the markets that react to them.
Greenspan's famous and carefully crafted ambiguous statements are misinterpreted, oversimplified, and over-reacted to constantly by the 'talking heads' and knee-jerk profit takers and short-termers.
It's become so common in recent years to listen to talking heads Analyze phrases, words, and sentences given by Greenspan (and now Bernanke) when they present reports and testimony. Below is one example of what commonly happens after the Fed Chairman utters his alphabet soup of ambiguity, as in this 1995 comment from Allen Greenspan:
"I don't see any problem that really disturb me" followed by, "As a consequence of the sluggish economic outlook, the probabilities, as some of my colleagues have indicated, of a recession have edged up, as indeed one would expect." This statement was made in 1995 at an international banking conference in Seattle .
Here are two major headlines responses to this statement:
"Greenspan Sees Chance of Recession" --The New York Times.
"Recession Is Unlikely, Greenspan Concludes" --The Washington Post.
Greenspan refers to these responses by the media and talking heads as "Constructive Ambiguity" (p. 147).
The Chairman of the Federal Reserve and board is considered to be the most important position in the governance and overseeing of the U.S. economy. This book makes a mundane topic and institution interesting.
One thing I liked about Greenspan. He believed in an "institutional rule of survival" in Washington: bring the bad news yourself. Look people in the eye, lay out the facts, and be direct (p. 53).
Some people think there is an element of fawning in this biography. Sometimes there seems to be some subtle praise. Aside from this, the media's categorization of Greenspan as a 'rock star' is oversimplified. It seems Woodward liked Greenspan's tenure. A lot of people did.
How to feel your way to the correct interest rate.......2006-05-03
Woodward will give you a feel for how Greenspan feels (this feeling is developed from massive amounts of economic dated and dicussions with other experts) his way along to a decision on interest rates. There is no clear-cut method for getting the interest rates to just the right level. Now that Greenspan is gone and left us with a boom, we have to be concerned that Ben Bernanke will also develop just the right feel. And probably more importantly--may he be just as lucky as Alan Greenspan.
Book Description
This ground-breaking best-seller reveals for the first time how the mighty and mysterious Federal Reserve operates -- and how it manipulated and transformed both the American economy and the world's during the last eight crucial years. Based on extensive interviews with all the major players, Secrets of the Temple takes us inside the government institution that is in some ways more secretive than the CIA and more powerful than the President or Congress.
Customer Reviews:
The Hobo Philosopher.......2007-09-02
"Secrets of the Temple" is a book that discusses the interaction of the Federal Reserve and Government economic policy. This book is basically a detailed analysis of the Reagan administration and the Volcker chairmanship of the Reserve.
Once again Mr. Greider teaches us how the "clock" works by taking us on an intimate tour through the internal mechanisms of the "clock". This is the hands on approach to learning. I like it. Mr. Greider takes us on a tour of the factory - from assembly to design and through sales and advertising.
This book is nearly 800 pages long. It's a bargain. If I had any negative criticism it would be that it contains too much information. But that seems to be Mr. Greider's style - no one is going to accuse him of not "doing his homework". This book is not a "read"; it is a "study".
An Extremely Liberal Critique of the Fed.......2007-08-05
This book is NOT an impartial, journalistic account of the way the Federal Reserve works. From the beginning Greider writes with a liberal agenda and it shows. It's amazing that he apparently does understand the basic precepts of economics, but chooses to ignore their implications with regard to policy making. Instead of seeing the logical reasons behind policy decisions, he immediately leaps to the conspiracy theory explanation for why the Fed has failed to enact the ultra-liberal polcy he prefers.
This book is 717 pages long -- about 400 of those pages are Greider's editorials on the Fed. When he does talk about the actual players in the story and uses quotes from the interviews, the book is pretty good. However, too much of the book is focused on Greider's opinions and not enough on representing the viewpoints of the Chairman, the main character in the story. I feel that had Greider included more quotes from Volker, that it would have completely destroyed his argument.
Please don't make this the first book you read about the Federal Reserve -- read something that gives you both sides of the issues of monetary policy. Once you understand the basics of central banking, you'll be able to sort out the useful, factual reporting from the useless editorials. The facts are worth having, just be prepared to read through a lot of fluff to get to it.
Useless.......2007-06-26
How can a reader understand the Federal Reserve without reading the history of it's creaton? It's critics, and the history of a central bank in America and Europe? They can't. Any book that does explain the history of international and national banking would never get a good review from the mainstream media. And all you have to do is look it up. Read some of the associated books listed along with this for the history behind the Federal Reserve, a private institution that has never been audited.
Buy, "How the world really works," for one example. The Federal Reserve is run by the same robber barrons our history books tell us turned to philanthropy. Nonsense. They make money on our 54 trillion in debt, are the same people who created the United Nations, Trilateral Commision and Council on Foreign Relations.
Now, why, you ask yourself, would standard oil and banking magnate JD Rockefellar, and JP Morgan want an international one world organization?
That is the question.You remember Rockefellars Standard Oil and how it was 'broken up.' Right. Into Exxon, Mobil, Texaco and Chevron.
The same Rockefellars that strangely enough fund nearly every left wing organization in this country. Why? Bankers don't care who runs the country as long as we spend a ton of money and borrow it from them.
They own both parties.
good information about what we don't know.......2007-02-18
This book has a lot of information we are not being told
No secrets here - just excellent propaganda.......2006-01-15
Quoting the first 2 sentences of the book:
"In the American system, citizens were taught that the transfer of political power accompanied elections, formal events when citizens made orderly choices about who shall govern. Very few Americans, therefore, understood that the transfer of power might also occur, more subtly, without elections."
Unfortunately, Greider is right about most Americans' stunning ignorance about how they're really governed, although one could argue that more and more people are waking up to the fact that all is not as it seems on the surface. So far, so good - but then, in the next paragraph, without mentioning the Federal Reserve by name, he says:
"It was part of the national government, yet deliberately set outside the electoral process, insulated from the control of mere politicians."
Good propaganda must be mostly truth to work. As I write, this book has a rating of 4 1/2 stars out of 5. This is an indication that the majority of reviewers have bought into the well spun propaganda Greider delivers.
The Federal Reserve is a 100% privately owned corporation, carefully set up to appear as though it is an arm of government. It was created solely for the benefit of it's shareholders, a significant proportion of which are foreign. Greider could have mentioned this extremely important fact at the outset. Instead he deliberately helps perpetuate the myth that "The Fed" is public.
He spends the rest of the 700+ pages going into excruciating detail about The Fed's decisions and their direct effects on the economy, with a focus on the time of Volcker's reign. If that's what you're looking for, this is the book for you. If you're looking for true insight into The Fed, its origins, who it benefits, and how it directly controls the largest economy in the world (and indirectly many other economies through their privately owned central banks) at the expense of everyone else, then I'd suggest reading "The Creature from Jekyll Island".
Why 1 star? I don't like propaganda deliberately designed to mislead people who are seeking truth about a subject which affects all of us. The few citizens that take the time to research a subject so important to all of us deserve better than to be distracted by true - but on the whole, irrelevant - information.
Book Description
This is the first book to describe and analyze the relationships between the Federal Reserve and the president, Congress, bankers, and economists. Far from being politically independent, the Federal Reserve is shown to be sensitive to a wide range of political influences.
Average customer rating:
- Clear
- A good blend of theory and historical evidence
- Accessible
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The International Origins of the Federal Reserve System
J. Lawrence Broz
Manufacturer: Cornell University Press
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The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable
ASIN: 0801433320 |
Book Description
The Federal Reserve Act of 1913 created the infrastructure for the modern American payments system. Probing the origins of this benchmark legislation, J. Lawrence Broz finds that international factors were crucial to its conception and passage. Until its passage, the United States had suffered under one of the most inefficient payment systems in the world. Serious banking panics erupted frequently, and nominal interest rates fluctuated wildly. Structural and regulatory flaws contributed not only to financial instability at home but also to the virtual absence of the dollar in world trade and payments.
Key institutional features of the Federal Reserve Act addressed both these shortcomings but it was the goal of internationalizing usage of the dollar that motivated social actors to pressure Congress for the improvements. With New York bankers in the forefront, an international coalition lobbied for a system that would reduce internal problems such as recurring panics, and simultaneously allow New York to challenge London's preeminence as the global banking center and encourage bankers to make the dollar a worldwide currency of record. To those who organized the political effort to pass the Act, Broz contends, the creation of the Federal Reserve System was first and foremost a response to international opportunities.
Customer Reviews:
Clear.......2002-03-09
Broz provides an easy to read text. His premises are clear, leading to true understanding. I've read much on this subject, but never such a complete work. It is as economical as can be expected; and I would argue more general than others have claimed. I highly suggest this book, and thank Dr. Broz for his contribution.
A good blend of theory and historical evidence.......2000-02-25
Broz's "The International Origins of the Federal Reserve System" is a excellent example of how single-case qualitative empirical research should be done. By providing a detailed formal theory framework, Broz is able to derive specific hypothesis about the development of the Federal Reserve in a manner that is both scientifically rigorous and historically detailed. While comparison with other cases would have been helpful (and neccessary if the model is to be generalized), this book is one of the best qualitative works in political science in general and political economy in particular in years.
Accessible.......1999-09-29
You can't find a more accessible text for this topic. I have scoured the librarys of academia and find that this text is not only readable and enjoyable, but it is superior in its treatment of subject matter. A look at the index will tell any reader that Mr. Broz's volume is the compleat guide.
Don't miss your chance to read this welcoming introductory text.
Book Description
Focusing on how the President and the Senate influence monetary policy by appointing Federal Reserve Board members, this book answers three questions about the appointment process and its effects. First, do politicians influence monetary policy via Federal Reserve appointments? Second, who influences the process--only the President or the President and the Senate? Third, how is the structure of the Federal Reserve appointment process explained? The study extends the analysis of the Federal Reserve Board to the European Central bank.
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This book examines monetary policy by focusing on how the President and the Senate influence monetary policy by appointing Fed members. The book attempts to answer three questions about the appointment process and its effects. First, do politicians influence monetary policy via Fed appointments? Second, who influences the process - the President alone or both the President and the Senate? Third, what explains the structure of the Fed appointment process? The test models show that the President alone, both the President and Senate, or neither, may influence monetary policy with Fed appointments. The structure of the process reflects political battles between the Democrats and Republicans regarding the centralization of authority to set monetary policy within the Federal Reserve System. It extends the analysis of the Fed to the European Central Bank and shows that the Fed process guarantees a process which is more representative of society compared to the ECB process.
Book Description
Congress, the President, and the Federal Reserve is a study of the politics of monetary policy making at the Federal Reserve--widely considered the most important and most powerful federal bureaucracy. Ostensibly, the Federal Reserve is independent of the political branches of government; however, Congress, the President, and the Federal Reserve clearly demonstrates-- from both a theoretical and empirical standpoint--how the preferences of members of Congress and the President impact decisionmaking at the Fed.
Current formal theories of the general policy-making process are utilized to construct an explanatory framework that identifies the mechanisms through which congressional and executive influence is exercised. The theoretical framework presented in the text also helps to explain the political dynamics of several of the most significant policy decisions of the Federal Reserve during the last half-century. In addition, this book provides a unique perspective on the manner in which Fed policymakers attempt to shield themselves from unwelcome political influence.
While the main focus of Congress, the President, and the Federal Reserve is monetary policy-making, it also speaks to the political nature of policy-making in a more general sense and provides a guide for the future study of the political dynamics in a wide variety of substantive policy areas. Thus it will interest not only political scientists and economists interested in monetary policy-making specifically but also those interested in the nature of public policy-making more generally.
Irwin L. Morris is Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Maryland.
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Helping the Federal Reserve Work Smarter
Leonard Jay Santow
Manufacturer: M E Sharpe Inc
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 156324084X |
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Politics of Money: The Fed Under Alan Greenspan
David M. Jones
Manufacturer: New York Inst of Finance
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ASIN: 0136016340 |
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