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Martin Mayer's engaging examination of the much-talked-about but little understood U.S. Federal Reserve begins with the dramatic events of October 1998, a month in which the market closed "lock limit down" for the first time in almost a decade. At the same time, Alan Greenspan, the Fed's chairman, began radically reinventing his agency's role and its influence on the market. Indeed, while most of the rest of the world's countries were diminishing the role of their central banks, Congress was granting new powers and responsibilities to the Fed. Mayer's book--part history, part journalistic report, and all detailed analysis--looks at the significance of those powers, their benefits and risks, and what they mean to the markets. He also devotes chapters to the day-to-day inner workings of the Fed, its influence in international financial matters, and its possible role in coming years.

As a prolific author and respected economics scholar, Mayer has been immersed in the financial world for decades and provides both bird's-eye and long-range views of money's complicated maneuverings. Without his excellent storytelling abilities and fluid writing style, this book would be heavy going for anyone who doesn't speak the language of high finance. Though it is most definitely dense (and its structure somewhat erratic), Mayer manages to make a complicated subject accessible for those with more interest than actual knowledge. An informative look at a hitherto enigmatic but influential institution. --S. Ketchum --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

To most investors, the Fed is one person Chairman Alan Greenspan whose job is to set interest rates. In this entertaining and enlightening account, popular financial journalist Mayer (The Bankers; The Greatest-Ever Bank Robbery) traces the evolution of the Federal Reserve from a sleepy regulatory agency to the most powerful economic institution in the world. Created in 1913, the Fed was designed to regulate banks in an era when they, and not the government, were assumed to control the economy; interest-rate setting was only a minor part of the agency's job. With the rise of a global economy in which individual banks no longer wield their former influence, the Fed has completely reinvented itself. Mayer, a guest scholar at the Brookings Institution and a regular contributor to the Wall Street Journal, tells of turf battles with the Treasury Department and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, in addition to conflicts with bankers and foreign institutions. Although his tale involves extensive discussion of topics like check clearing, reserve assets and regulatory accounting, and most of the protagonists are staid, Mayer livens things up with irreverent character sketches, flamboyant prose (considering the subject matter) and canny storytelling. At the same time, he presents the historical and economic details accurately. (June Forecast: Written with the verve of a Vanity Fair magazine article, and supported by a 20-city radio satellite tour, this very topical book should attract fans of Mayer's previous books, in addition to investors who wish to make sense of the Fed's role in the market.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

If you asked someone what the Federal Reserve does, chances are he or she would reply, "Raise or lower interest rates." Mayer (The Bankers) here agrees that adjusting interest rates is one thing that the "Fed" is best known for, but there are many other activities in which the central bank engages. The Fed's original role was that of a central bank and, as such, it was responsible for overseeing the money supply. But as Mayer points out, the Fed has taken on more of an activist role in order to calm markets during times of crisis and to "prevent systemic failure." When the global financial markets went into a tailspin in the fall of 1998, the Fed actively tried to resolve the crisis. With all the attention now given to imploding dot-coms and crashing stock prices, Alan Greenspan and his colleagues may be riding to the rescue once more. Mayer's well-written account helps to further demystify the Fed and makes us understand how important its role is in our lives. Several other books have put the Fed under the journalistic magnifying glass: William Greider's Secrets of the Temple (1987), Steve K. Beckner's Back from the Brink (Wiley, 1997), and Bob Woodward's Maestro (S. & S., 2000). Recommended for larger public libraries. Richard Drezen, "Washington Post," New York City Bureau

Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

William Greider's Secrets of the Temple (1989) seemed like the last word on the Federal Reserve System. But veteran financial journalist Mayer demonstrates cogently that the "new economy" has vastly increased central bankers' visibility and perceived power, but also weakened the Fed's capacity to affect the economy. When it was formed, the Federal Reserve could control economic behavior by manipulating banks' capacity to lend; today, markets generate most investment capital, and financial instruments such as derivatives complicate both bank supervision and economic "fine-tuning." Mayer is not particularly pessimistic, but he sounds a warning. Under financial "deregulation," the Fed supervises the entire financial-services industry. Mayer urges full disclosure: "the Fed must bring into the light where the markets can see them continuously the now hidden maneuverings of the private banking empires, the derivatives dealing, the over-leveraging that accompanies overreliance on diversification and probability. And the Fed has never believed in sunshine as a disinfectant." Mary Carroll

Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

Robert Litan Vice President and Director, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution The extraordinary performance of the U.S. economy in the 1990s is due, in no small measure, to the superb monetary management by the Federal Reserve Board. There is no one better qualified to take readers behind the scenes to understand how the Fed really operates than Martin Mayer, whose matchless prose is equaled by his thorough understanding of how the economy, the banking system, and the Federal Reserve really operate. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Book Description

The Fed has entered a new era, and hardly anyone understands the rules of its game. Where once it could control the economy by controlling what the banks did, it now must push directly on the markets. But how? Why do interest-rate changes sometimes move the markets as expected, and sometimes fail to have any effect? What else is the Fed doing that might affect asset prices and growth rates? The links between Fed decisions and market reactions have become far more complicated and confused than ever before. What is an investor to make of it?

In The Fed, one of the world's best financial journalists offers a major new explanation of how the Fed works and how its world has changed. Martin Mayer is the bestselling author of The Bankers and The Bankers: The Next Generation, among many other books. He knows more about the banking system, the markets, and the Federal Reserve than anyone else writing today. The Fed is the first book to explain why all the old rules for Fed watchers are no longer operative, and what it is that investors must know to understand the Fed today. For anyone who wants to know why Alan Greenspan is hailed as the second most powerful man in the United States, The Fed is essential reading.

Mayer offers many behind-the-scenes stories from past and present Fed administrations, and he explains the overlooked significance of recent dramatic expansions in the Fed's powers and perks. Why does the Fed care about the difference between 30-year and 29-year bond yields? Why and how did the Fed join with its district banks in organizing the bailout of Long Term Capital Management? How was the age-old war between the Fed and the Comptroller of the Currency finally resolved in 1999? Why has the increased "sunshine" of announcing market interventions and posting proceedings of the Federal Open Market Committee not led to greater market stability? Why did Greenspan make the key decision of the Clinton boom years -- to let the good times roll while unemployment sank to record lows -- despite all historical evidence that it would be inflationary? These are just some of the questions answered in this wide-ranging, sharp, and entertaining book. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.