Do They Walk on Water?

Federal Reserve Chairmen and the Fed

Leonard J. Santow

• Publisher: Praeger
• Year: 2008
• Print ISBN:
  9780313360336
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9780313360343
• Topic: Economics
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Economics

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 manifest 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 in layman's terms, 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 insights on the subprime mess and the securities that helped bring down the real estate house of cards, and it offers prescriptions for smoothing the choppy economic seas going forward.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• Foreword
• Special Acknowledgment
• 1. Setting the Stage
• 2. Monetary Policy around the World
• 3. The Fed and Its Policies
• 4. Four Decades of Data that Tell a Story
• 5. The Five Recent Chairmen: An Overview
• 6. Arthur Burns (February 1, 1970–January 31, 1978)
• 7. G.William Miller (March 8, 1978–August 6, 1979)
• 8. Paul Volcker (August 6, 1979–August 11, 1987)
• 9. Alan Greenspan (August 11, 1987–January 31, 2006)
• 10. Ben S. Bernanke (From February 1, 2006)
• 11. The Need for Preventive Regulation
• 12. Learning from the Past to Improve the Future
• 13. A Bigger-Picture Perspective
• 14. Concluding Thoughts and Recommendations
• Appendix 1 Glossary
• Appendix 2 A Flavor of the Times: Selected Media Headlines (1970–2008)
• Index