Imagining the Fed

Imagining the Fed PDF Author: Nicolas Thompson
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 1438482604
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 255

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Book Description
Imagining the Fed traces a six-decade struggle to shape the Federal Reserve's policymaking organs, the Washington-based Board and the Federal Open Market Committee. Conventional wisdom holds that Congress ended the system's struggle in 1935 by granting the Board a voting majority on the open market committee, establishing its Fed primacy. Yet, this book shows that the Fed's struggle continued flaring to yield consequential changes until 1970, when the modern Fed emerged. Nicolas Thompson explores how the Fed's evolution from a weak and fragmented sprawl into the world's most powerful central bank paralleled broader changes in the American polity. The rise and fall of hegemonic political parties remade the Board and elevated its Fed position, while the wars of the twentieth century concentrated Fed power in New York. When peace returned, however, system agents inherited a central bank that veered from the law, inviting renewed struggle. This process continued into the 1960s, when an ascendant Democratic Party loaded the Board with economists, who remade it in their image. Later partisan choices to launch unfunded wars at home and abroad unleashed inflationary forces which severed the dollar's link to gold. Freed from its golden fetters, monetary policy emerged as a domestic policy realm and Fed power durably concentrated in a new Board technocracy.

Imagining the Fed

Imagining the Fed PDF Author: Nicolas Thompson
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 1438482604
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 255

Get Book Here

Book Description
Imagining the Fed traces a six-decade struggle to shape the Federal Reserve's policymaking organs, the Washington-based Board and the Federal Open Market Committee. Conventional wisdom holds that Congress ended the system's struggle in 1935 by granting the Board a voting majority on the open market committee, establishing its Fed primacy. Yet, this book shows that the Fed's struggle continued flaring to yield consequential changes until 1970, when the modern Fed emerged. Nicolas Thompson explores how the Fed's evolution from a weak and fragmented sprawl into the world's most powerful central bank paralleled broader changes in the American polity. The rise and fall of hegemonic political parties remade the Board and elevated its Fed position, while the wars of the twentieth century concentrated Fed power in New York. When peace returned, however, system agents inherited a central bank that veered from the law, inviting renewed struggle. This process continued into the 1960s, when an ascendant Democratic Party loaded the Board with economists, who remade it in their image. Later partisan choices to launch unfunded wars at home and abroad unleashed inflationary forces which severed the dollar's link to gold. Freed from its golden fetters, monetary policy emerged as a domestic policy realm and Fed power durably concentrated in a new Board technocracy.

A Century of Monetary Policy at the Fed

A Century of Monetary Policy at the Fed PDF Author: David E. Lindsey
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137578599
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 332

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Book Description
In this narrative history, David E. Lindsey gives the reader a ringside seat to a century of policies at the US Federal Reserve. Alternating between broad historical strokes and deep dives into the significance of monetary issues and developments, Lindsey offers a fascinating look into monetary policymaking from the Fed's inception in 1913 to today. Lindsey's three decades of service on the Federal Reserve Board staff allow him to combine the heft of scholarship with an insider's perspective on how the recent chairmen's and current chairwoman's personalities and singular visions have shaped policy choices with far-reaching consequences. He critiques the performances of Chairman Ben Bernanke and Vice Chair Janet Yellen during the prelude, outbreak, and aftermath of the financial crisis of 2008, situating them in the context of the Fed's century-long history. He also quantitatively explores an alternative to the conventional New-Keynesian theory of inflation, replacing so-called "rational expectations" with the Fed's inflation objective. This unique volume is a piece of living history that has much to offer economists and monetary policy and finance professionals.

Secrets of the Temple

Secrets of the Temple PDF Author: William Greider
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 0671675567
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 804

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Book Description
Reveals how the Federal Reserve under Paul Volcker engineered changes in America's economy.

The Power and Independence of the Federal Reserve

The Power and Independence of the Federal Reserve PDF Author: Peter Conti-Brown
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691178380
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 372

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Book Description
An in-depth look at the history, leadership, and structure of the Federal Reserve Bank The independence of the Federal Reserve is considered a cornerstone of its identity, crucial for keeping monetary policy decisions free of electoral politics. But do we really understand what is meant by "Federal Reserve independence"? Using scores of examples from the Fed's rich history, The Power and Independence of the Federal Reserve shows that much common wisdom about the nation's central bank is inaccurate. Legal scholar and financial historian Peter Conti-Brown provides an in-depth look at the Fed's place in government, its internal governance structure, and its relationships to such individuals and groups as the president, Congress, economists, and bankers. Exploring how the Fed regulates the global economy and handles its own internal politics, and how the law does—and does not—define the Fed's power, Conti-Brown captures and clarifies the central bank's defining complexities. He examines the foundations of the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, which established a system of central banks, and the ways that subsequent generations have redefined the organization. Challenging the notion that the Fed Chair controls the organization as an all-powerful technocrat, he explains how institutions and individuals—within and outside of government—shape Fed policy. Conti-Brown demonstrates that the evolving mission of the Fed—including systemic risk regulation, wider bank supervision, and as a guardian against inflation and deflation—requires a reevaluation of the very way the nation's central bank is structured. Investigating how the Fed influences and is influenced by ideologies, personalities, law, and history, The Power and Independence of the Federal Reserve offers a uniquely clear and timely picture of one of the most important institutions in the United States and the world.

Engine of Inequality

Engine of Inequality PDF Author: Karen Petrou
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1119726743
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 291

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Book Description
The first book to reveal how the Federal Reserve holds the key to making us more economically equal, written by an author with unparalleled expertise in the real world of financial policy Following the 2008 financial crisis, the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy placed much greater focus on stabilizing the market than on helping struggling Americans. As a result, the richest Americans got a lot richer while the middle class shrank and economic and wealth inequality skyrocketed. In Engine of Inequality, Karen Petrou offers pragmatic solutions for creating more inclusive monetary policy and equality-enhancing financial regulation as quickly and painlessly as possible. Karen Petrou is a leading financial-policy analyst and consultant with unrivaled knowledge of what drives the decisions of federal officials and how big banks respond to financial policy in the real world. Instead of proposing legislation that would never pass Congress, the author provides an insider's look at politically plausible, high-impact financial policy fixes that will radically shift the equality balance. Offering an innovative, powerful, and highly practical solution for immediately turning around the enormous nationwide problem of economic inequality, this groundbreaking book: Presents practical ways America can and should tackle economic inequality with fast-acting results Provides revealing examples of exactly how bad economic inequality in America has become no matter how hard we all work Demonstrates that increasing inequality is disastrous for long-term economic growth, political action, and even personal happiness Explains why your bank's interest rates are still only a fraction of what they were even though the rich are getting richer than ever, faster than ever Reveals the dangers of FinTech and BigTech companies taking over banking Shows how Facebook wants to control even the dollars in your wallet Discusses who shares the blame for our economic inequality, including the Fed, regulators, Congress, and even economists Engine of Inequality: The Fed and the Future of Wealth in America should be required reading for leaders, policymakers, regulators, media professionals, and all Americans wanting to ensure that the nation’s financial policy will be a force for promoting economic equality.

America's Bank

America's Bank PDF Author: Roger Lowenstein
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101614129
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 370

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Book Description
A tour de force of historical reportage, America’s Bank illuminates the tumultuous era and remarkable personalities that spurred the unlikely birth of America’s modern central bank, the Federal Reserve. Today, the Fed is the bedrock of the financial landscape, yet the fight to create it was so protracted and divisive that it seems a small miracle that it was ever established. For nearly a century, America, alone among developed nations, refused to consider any central or organizing agency in its financial system. Americans’ mistrust of big government and of big banks—a legacy of the country’s Jeffersonian, small-government traditions—was so widespread that modernizing reform was deemed impossible. Each bank was left to stand on its own, with no central reserve or lender of last resort. The real-world consequences of this chaotic and provincial system were frequent financial panics, bank runs, money shortages, and depressions. By the first decade of the twentieth century, it had become plain that the outmoded banking system was ill equipped to finance America’s burgeoning industry. But political will for reform was lacking. It took an economic meltdown, a high-level tour of Europe, and—improbably—a conspiratorial effort by vilified captains of Wall Street to overcome popular resistance. Finally, in 1913, Congress conceived a federalist and quintessentially American solution to the conflict that had divided bankers, farmers, populists, and ordinary Americans, and enacted the landmark Federal Reserve Act. Roger Lowenstein—acclaimed financial journalist and bestselling author of When Genius Failed and The End of Wall Street—tells the drama-laden story of how America created the Federal Reserve, thereby taking its first steps onto the world stage as a global financial power. America’s Bank showcases Lowenstein at his very finest: illuminating complex financial and political issues with striking clarity, infusing the debates of our past with all the gripping immediacy of today, and painting unforgettable portraits of Gilded Age bankers, presidents, and politicians. Lowenstein focuses on the four men at the heart of the struggle to create the Federal Reserve. These were Paul Warburg, a refined, German-born financier, recently relocated to New York, who was horrified by the primitive condition of America’s finances; Rhode Island’s Nelson W. Aldrich, the reigning power broker in the U.S. Senate and an archetypal Gilded Age legislator; Carter Glass, the ambitious, if then little-known, Virginia congressman who chaired the House Banking Committee at a crucial moment of political transition; and President Woodrow Wilson, the academician-turned-progressive-politician who forced Glass to reconcile his deep-seated differences with bankers and accept the principle (anathema to southern Democrats) of federal control. Weaving together a raucous era in American politics with a storied financial crisis and intrigue at the highest levels of Washington and Wall Street, Lowenstein brings the beginnings of one of the country’s most crucial institutions to vivid and unforgettable life. Readers of this gripping historical narrative will wonder whether they’re reading about one hundred years ago or the still-seething conflicts that mark our discussions of banking and politics today.

Media Representation and the Global Imagination

Media Representation and the Global Imagination PDF Author: Shani Orgad
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0745680852
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 391

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Book Description
This book is a clear, systematic, original and lively account of how media representations shape the way we see our and others’ lives in a global age. It provides in-depth analysis of a range of international media representations of disaster, war, conflict, migration and celebration. The book explores how images, stories and voices, on television, the Internet, and in advertisements and newspapers, invite us to relocate to distant contexts, and to relate to people who are remote from our daily lives, by developing ‘mediated intimacy’ and focusing on the self. It also explores how these representations shape our self-narratives. Orgad examines five sites of media representation – the other, the nation, possible lives, the world and the self. She argues that representations can and should contribute to fostering more ambivalence and complexity in how we think and feel about the world, our place in it and our relation to far-away others. Media Representations and the Global Imagination will be of particular interest to students and scholars of media and cultural studies, as well as sociology, politics, international relations, development studies and migration studies.

Imagining Mars

Imagining Mars PDF Author: Robert Crossley
Publisher: Wesleyan University Press
ISBN: 0819571059
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 386

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Book Description
Mars in the human imagination from the invention of the telescope to the present For centuries, the planet Mars has captivated astronomers and inspired writers of all genres. Whether imagined as the symbol of the bloody god of war, the cradle of an alien species, or a possible new home for human civilization, our closest planetary neighbor has played a central role in how we think about ourselves in the universe. From Galileo to Kim Stanley Robinson, Robert Crossley traces the history of our fascination with the red planet as it has evolved in literature both fictional and scientific. Crossley focuses specifically on the interplay between scientific discovery and literary invention, exploring how writers throughout the ages have tried to assimilate or resist new planetary knowledge. Covering texts from the 1600s to the present, from the obscure to the classic, Crossley shows how writing about Mars has reflected the desires and social controversies of each era. This astute and elegant study is perfect for science fiction fans and readers of popular science.

Inflation, Unemployment, and Monetary Policy

Inflation, Unemployment, and Monetary Policy PDF Author: Robert M. Solow
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262692229
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 140

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Book Description
Edited and with an introduction by Benjamin M. Friedman The connection between price inflation and real economic activity has been a focus of macroeconomic research--and debate--for much of the past century. Although this connection is crucial to our understanding of what monetary policy can and cannot accomplish, opinions about its basic properties have swung widely over the years. Today, virtually everyone studying monetary policy acknowledges that, contrary to what many modern macroeconomic models suggest, central bank actions often affect both inflation and measures of real economic activity, such as output, unemployment, and incomes. But the nature and magnitude of these effects are not yet understood. In this volume, Robert M. Solow and John B. Taylor present their views on the dilemmas facing U.S. monetary policymakers. The discussants are Benjamin M. Friedman, James K. Galbraith, N. Gregory Mankiw, and William Poole. The aim of this lively exchange of views is to make both an intellectual contribution to macroeconmics and a practical contribution to the solution of a public policy question of central importance.

Origins of the Federal Reserve System

Origins of the Federal Reserve System PDF Author: James Livingston
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501724711
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 253

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Book Description
The rise of corporate capitalism during the late 19th and early 20th centuries has long been a source of lively debate among historians. In Origins of the Federal Reserve System, James Livingston approaches this controversial topic from a fresh perspective, asking how, during this era, a "new order of corporation men" made itself the preeminent source of knowledge on all significant economic issues and thereby changed the character of public and political discourse in the United States. The book seeks to uncover the roots of the Federal Reserve System and to explain the awakening and articulation of class consciousness among America's urban elite, two phenomena that its author sees as inseparable. According to Livingston, the movement for banking and monetary reform that led to the creation of the Federal Reserve System played an important role in the general transition from entrepreneurial to corporate capitalism: it was during this struggle for reform that a group of business leaders first emerged as a new corporate social class. This interdisciplinary account of the social, cultural, and intellectual Origins of the Federal Reserve System offers both a discussion of the sources of modern public policy and a persuasive study of upper-class formation in the United States. The book will interest a wide audience of historians, economists, political scientists, sociologists, and others who wish to understand the rise of America's corporate elite, the class that has played a large-if not dominant-role in 20thcentury America.