Jones, David M. The Politics of Money: The Fed Under Alan Greenspan. New York Institute of Finance, 1991. 273 pages.

David Jones is an expert on "Fed watching," the esoteric science of collecting clues that might allow one to anticipate shifts in Fed policy. These days it seems that everyone watches the Fed, as many of the major gyrations in the stock averages occur when investors anticipate how the Fed might react to some recent tidbit of economic news. The Federal Reserve chairman is sometimes referred to as the "second most powerful person in America." In times of economic crisis, he and his Board of Governors are expected to exercise their political independence, and calm the waters by demonstrating wisdom and foresight. One mistake and it could all come down.

Alan Greenspan has been the Fed chairman since 1987. His style is to balance the economy on the edge of recession, without stimulating the sort of growth that would lead to inflation. Tiny interest rate adjustments are used to achieve this goal, based on the theory that small moves are easier to reverse if they turn out to be wrong. While Greenspan is a prodigious student of every conceivable economic indicator, Jones feels that this could be a problem: too many contradictory and trivial indicators might someday lead to paralysis. In addition to describing the structure and operations of the Federal Reserve System, Jones includes an appendix (pages 248-253) that lists all of the members of the Board of Governors from 1913-1990.
ISBN 0-13-601634-0

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