Category: Central Banking
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Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World (2009) by Liaquat Ahamed
Liaquat Ahamed’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book, “Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World” (2009), is a masterfully written and deeply insightful narrative of the economic and political turbulence that defined the early twentieth century. With the precision of a historian and the storytelling flair of a novelist, Ahamed traces the actions and missteps of…
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Andrew Jackson and the Bank War (1967) by Robert V. Remini
Robert Remini’s Andrew Jackson and the Bank War (1967) is a real gem of a book. I can’t recommend it highly enough. It offers a brilliant account of one of the most consequential and contentious episodes in early American political and economic history. First published in 1967, this work continues to resonate not just as…
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Secrets of the Temple: How the Federal Reserve Runs the Country (1987) by William Greider
William Greider’s The Secrets of the Temple: How the Federal Reserve Runs the Country stands as a monumental work that demystifies one of the most opaque and consequential institutions in American life—the Federal Reserve. If you’ve ever found yourself baffled by headlines about the Fed “lowering interest rates” or “easing monetary policy,” Greider’s book offers…
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Globalizing Capital: A History of the International Monetary System (2008) by Barry Eichengreen
A dilemma rests at the heart of the international monetary system. A stable and predictable international currency regime is a necessary catalyst to international trade. So too is capital mobility, allowing the efficient allocation of foreign investment and spurring global economic growth. The rub is that high capital mobility tends to undermine stable, predictable currency…
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America’s Bank: The Epic Struggle to Create the Federal Reserve (2015) by Roger Lowenstein
The Federal Reserve is one of the most controversial government organizations. Many fear its powers; fewer actually understand them. The topic of central banking in America has been addressed many times before, from the classic 1957 study “Banks and Politics in America” by Bray Hammond to William Greider’s 1987 bestseller “Secrets of the Temple.” What…
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When Washington Shut Down Wall Street: The Great Financial Crisis of 1914 and the Origins of America’s Monetary Supremacy (2007) by William L. Silber
The proverbial “Almighty Dollar” hasn’t always been so almighty. In fact, if you believe William Silber, it only just recently celebrated its 100th birthday. “When Washington Shut Down Wall Street: The Great Financial Crisis of 1914 and the Origins of America’s Monetary Supremacy” argues that because of a series of bold, controversial, but above all…
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The Alchemists: Three Central Bankers and a World on Fire (2013) by Neil Irwin
For many years Ben Bernanke was an economics professor at Princeton University with an academic focus on the Great Depression. He was plucked from obscurity by the Bush administration and made chairman of the Federal Reserve in February 2006. A short 18-months later the subprime mortgage crisis hit. Bernanke and his peers at the Bank…
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