To most investors, the Fed is one person—Chairman Alan Greenspan—whose job is to set interest rates. In this entertaining and enlightening account, popular financial journalist Mayer (The Bankers; The Greatest-Ever Bank Robbery) traces the evolution of the Federal Reserve from a sleepy regulatory agency to the most powerful economic institution in the world. Created in 1913, the Fed was designed to regulate banks in an era when they, and not the government, were assumed to control the economy; interest-rate setting was only a minor part of the agency's job. With the rise of a global economy in which individual banks no longer wield their former influence, the Fed has completely reinvented itself. Mayer, a guest scholar at the Brookings Institution and a regular contributor to the Wall Street Journal, tells of turf battles with the Treasury Department and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, in addition to conflicts with bankers and foreign institutions. Although his tale involves extensive discussion of topics like check clearing, reserve assets and regulatory accounting, and most of the protagonists are staid, Mayer livens things up with irreverent character sketches, flamboyant prose (considering the subject matter) and canny storytelling. At the same time, he presents the historical and economic details accurately. (June 11)
Forecast:Written with the verve of a
Vanity Fair magazine article, and supported by a 20-city radio satellite tour, this very topical book should attract fans of Mayer's previous books, in addition to investors who wish to make sense of the Fed's role in the market.
