The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Federal Reserve
by Lita Epstein
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List Price: $18.95
Our Price: $14.21
Your Save: $ 4.74 ( 25% )
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Manufacturer: Alpha
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Average Customer Rating:   
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 332.110973
EAN: 9780028643236
ISBN: 0028643232
Label: Alpha
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 360
Publication Date: 2003-03
Publisher: Alpha
Release Date: 2003-03-04
Studio: Alpha
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Learning about the Federal reserve
Comment: I wanted to learn the easy (Idiot) way about the Federal Reserve. It did not answer all the questions, and sometimes not clearly. It had information about more than the Federal Reserve which I didnt care about.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Big on paper short on Gold !
Comment: The book was informative in many ways especially in the history of the FED and some of the key historic and contemporary figures. The chapters on FED "Speak" and on whats going on up to 2003 in the US Economy were well done. My big disappointment is with the fact that the authors never mentioned the very historic and monumental event of taking our currency off of the Gold Standard. This one decision alone is a very big part of why we have so many ongoing problems in our economy that need so called "Fixing" by the Fed.
There was mention of Richard Nixon and the Fed Chairman at the time Nixon was in office which is when they made the big decision to dump the gold standard but yet the authors never mention it at all. I can't believe they left this important event out of the book by accident.
I'd like to have an explanation from the authors concerning this gross negligence.
Customer Rating:
Summary: a let-down
Comment: While there is certainly much any reader could learn from this book, it certainly cannot be claimed to be definitive.
My job requires me to know quite a bit about the Federal Reserve, the details of whose various processes and responsibilities are usually given short shrift in most macroeconomics textbooks. And while it's the easiest thing in the world to find a book which mentions the Fed, usually nothing more than a cursory overview of the institution is given before the discussion moves on to the three tools of monetary policy and their roles in the macroeconomy.
Thus it was I was transported with delight when I was alerted that Alpha Books had come out with this title in 2003 (as of my writing it appears to be out of print). Others might think the title odd or arcane, but for me being conversant with the esoteric workings of the Fed has a direct bearing on my livelihood.
Alas! This book is not so great. I am disappointed to report that it reads like a government brochure, without getting down to the nitty-gritty. Or only brushing the nitty-gritty.
Worse, remember how I said that most economic textbooks focus on the Fed's three main tools of monetary policy and not much else? Well, this book doesn't even do that, dealing only glancingly with monetary policy.
From the look of it, you might think you're getting a much deeper, much more detailed explanation of how monetary policy works, but you'd be wrong. That's not the kind of book it is. It's almost a coffee table book, without color plates. There are no graphs and charts, and most of the text employs a "Who woulda thought!"-type approach. It seems to be written for people who already understand the subject--pace the title.
In particular, what I was looking for were extended discussions of the three tools of monetary policy, and a sickening amount of detail as to how they're carried out, their ins and outs, their effects, etc. I found nothing of the kind.
For example, in something I was reading the other day, I came across a statement to the effect that to increase the money supply, the Fed buys bonds "from the government." It's this last part that puzzled me. I thought the Fed was buying back bonds in the hands of private citizens.
So I sought out the explanation in this book. Surely there, the nuts and bolts of how Fed bond-buying goes down would be spelled out in nauseating detail.
No such luck. (Although the book does inform you that the Fed occasionally buys and sells bonds.) And ditto for similar technical questions.
Not that the book is a complete waste of time. There's a lot here I didn't know about the Fed, but most of what I learned was simply not vital, functional knowledge about the nuts and bolts of how the system operates. The book celebrates definitions; deeper explanations are few and far between.
In sum, I would characterize "The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Federal Reserve" as a mere appreciation of the Fed, filled with trivia, addresses, definitions, and a raft of interesting facts, but designed either for one whose interest is merely casual, or who already knows so much about the workings of our central bank that they're dying for a round of trivial pursuit.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Touches on everything, but not deeply
Comment: This book goes into a tremendous amount of detail on several subjects I simply had no interest in. If you want to get a job at the Fed, for example, this book has an entire chapter dedicated to just that. How about developing our communities? Because the Federal Reserve Board is required by law to promote local economic development, there is a chapter on this as well. Would you like to know if we Americans are saving enough? No worries. Since the Federal Reserve helps member banks develop consumer education programs, there is a chapter on savings, too.
For the general reader, where this book is very helpful is in showing just how many responsibilities the Fed has. There are educational, regulatory, supervisory, as well as the more obvious monetary roles the Fed must play. It, of course, has a national role as America's central bank, but it also has a powerful international role that is less well-known. This book gives an abbreviated history of the institution and America's banking history, and it also has an entire chapter on the circumlocutory way Fed Chairmen express themselves in public (called "Fedspeak").
What the book is less helpful with is detail. Everything is discussed, but nothing is dealt with at even moderate length.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A Great Guide To Understanding The Fed
Comment: This book was written by an insider. This is not a bad thing. This book is a great tool to help anyone understand the workings of the Federal Reserve System. Whether or not someone agrees with how the Fed runs itself is a seperate matter from this books intention and who this book was created for. This book does not get into philosophical idealogy of economic systems and it shouldn't. It accurately discusses the tools the Fed uses to help steer the economy in the direction they want it to go. It also explains the layout of the structure of the Fed. This book is good for anyone curious about the structure / tools of the Fed and why it does what it does. The Fed helps run our economy and this book shows how pretty decently. It won't disappoint you, as it is straight-forward and comprehendable. Great for anyone who works in banking / finance / invesments.
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