From Library Journal
This book is ostensibly focused on the recent role of the Federal Reserve System and monetary policy. However, more time is actually spent on a description of recent U.S. economic performance. The exposition of the Fed is not detailed but rather is a collection of a few key ideas and interpretive strategies. This volume falls in the awkward middle ground where scholars will find few insights and where nonexperts might be easily overwhelmed by the technicalities. Recommended only if a library desires a very recent economic update. Other books have done better in illuminating the Fed.
- Richard C. Schiming, Mankato State Univ., Minn.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
- Richard C. Schiming, Mankato State Univ., Minn.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
A quasi-insider's evenhanded evaluation of Alan Greenspan's stewardship as chairman of the Federal Reserve's Board of Governors--an account that almost surely tells readers more than they care to know about the nuances of monetary policy. One of Wall Street's more astute Fed watchers, Jones, who works for a brokerage house, offers an exacting audit of the incumbent chairman's tenure that's certain to attract the attention of his fellow professionals. Most Main Streeters, however, will be lost from the start: The author does not deign to provide even a terse explanation of the Federal Reserve System, let alone what it does, until he's nearly one-quarter of the way through a decidedly technical text crammed with charts and tabular material. Within the limits of what he sets out to do, though, Jones delivers perceptive commentary on his collegial subject's priorities and the low-key way the Greenspan Fed executes policy changes. Jones also makes a fine job of showing how FRB hawks (anti-inflation advocates) and doves (those who would avoid recession at almost any cost) battle one another in board room as well as backdoor venues. Covered as well are the quotidian techniques employed by the Federal Reserve banks in their open-market operations to contract or expand the money supply under differing economic circumstances and in response to the dollar's value abroad. Nor does the author shrink from finding fault with regimes past or present; with a vested interest in clearer signals from central banks as to their intentions, moreover, he confidently recommends the FRB's system to the architects of Europe's nascent monetary union. A savvy, provocative progress report that's fine fare for Fed sophisticates, albeit with precious few rewards for nonspecialists. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
