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This study links two fundamental political structures of the Cold War era, the transatlantic security system and the international monetary system. Central to this issue is a problem that soured relations among the Federal Republic and its major allies from the 1950s to the 1970s: Who was to bear the enormous cost of British and American troops in Germany?Both Washington and London identified this cost as a major reason for the decline of the pound and the dollar, whereas Germany reluctantly paid and traded "Money for Security", a fundamental pattern of its postwar foreign policy. ... Read more

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The aim of this book is to analyse specific sets of macro and structural policies in selected Eastern European countries. The book includes studies on the major Western CIS countries, Belarus, Russia and Ukraine, plus a set of cross-country and regional studies. The analysis in this book contributes importantly to the discussion about the economic prospects of the CIS countries.

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Standard macroeconomic monographs often discuss the mechanismof monetary transmission, usually ending by highlighting thecomplexities and uncertainties involved in this mechanism. Conversely,The Preparation of Monetary Policy takes theseuncertainties as a starting point, analytically investigating theirnature and spelling out their consequences for the monetary policymaker. The second innovative aspect of this book is its focus onpolicy preparation instead of well-covered topics such as monetarypolicy strategy, tactics, and implementation. Thirdly, a general,multi-model framework for preparing monetary policy is proposed, whichis illustrated by case studies stressing the role of internationaleconomic linkages and of expectations. Written in a self-containedfashion, these case studies are of interest by themselves.

The book is written for an audience that is interested in the art andscience of monetary policy making, which includes central bankers,academics, and (graduate) students in the field of monetary economics,macroeconomics, international economics and finance. ... Read more

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An overview and comparison of monetary policies in the United States and the world's leading industrial countries is provided here. Following an introduction, the Handbook is divided into three parts. Part I deals with monetary policy and the money supply process, monetary policy and economic activity, monetary policy and inflation, monetary policy and regulation, and monetary policy and bank regulation. Part II covers monetary policy in the United States, and Part III includes chapters examining monetary policy in each of the other G-7 countries. A final chapter discusses monetary policy coordination in the European Monetary System. ... Read more

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Over the quarter of a century with which this book is concerned, the UK has had an extraordinarily diverse experience of monetary policy and monetary regimes. Monetary policy has been transformed, from attempts to control broad money from the supply side with the use of indirect controls on banks' lending, to an almost exclusive focus on interest rates in a context of inflation targeting. The exchange rate has at times been fixed, at other times almost perfectly flexible, and at other times again more or less managed. Meanwhile the real economy has experienced large variations in growth, together with what most observers have seen as a sharp rise and then a gradual decline in the NAIRU; inflation has varied between 25% and 2%.

This is a book about the making of monetary policy in the UK, about how and why the monetary regimes changed over the period, and how and why the monetary authorities took the decisions they did about monetary growth, interest rates and the exchange rate. It includes separate chapters on monetary targeting, on policy in the second half of the 1980s, on the UK's brief membership of the ERM, on inflation targeting between 1993 and 1997, and on inflation targeting with instrument independence since 1997. It also contains a detailed analysis of the factors that influenced interest rate decisions and monetary policy with particular reference to the exchange rate, and an investigation of the nature and reasons for interest rate smoothing in the UK.

"David Cobham has written an excellent history of British monetary policy over the final quarter of the 20th Century. His judgement of the political and economic context is sound and sensible. It is well written with clear and helpful tables and charts. Besides the careful historical reporting, Cobham adds some valuable extra research of his own, notably on the interaction between monetary policy and the exchange rate (Chapter 9) and on the reasons for interest rate 'smoothing' (Chapter 10)." Charles Goodhart, Norman Sosnow Professor of Banking and Finance at the London School of Economics

"...an essential guide covering everything the reader could ever want to know about the UK's turbulent monetary history over the last quarter century" Charles Bean, Chief Economist, Bank of England ... Read more

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The book proposes a monetary policy regime that is suitable for the European Periphery on the road to the euro. The first part examines the relation between the eleven founding members of the EMU and countries staying out of the EMU - paying particular attention to the European Periphery that includes Greece and all those CEE transition countries which have recently applied for EU membership. The second part of the book argues against ERM-II participation for those countries. It stresses the limits in efficiency of an ERM-II arrangement in a world of increased international capital movements, fiscal imbalances, and asymmetric real shocks. The third part offers a consistent and credible monetary framework for the achievement of price stability at the European Periphery: adoption of explicit and formal inflation targets together with political and economic independence of the central bank. ... Read more

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This successful text, now in its second edition, offers the most comprehensive overview of monetary economics and monetary policy currently available. It covers the microeconomic, macroeconomic and monetary policy components of the field. ... Read more

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This book examines monetary policy and central banking in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Individual chapters focus on the monetary frameworks of particular countries. Other chapters adopt a thematic approach, addressing important subjects such as exchange rate regimes, price stability and central banking. ... Read more

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Expanding upon the literature of new institutional economics, the first part of this study stresses the significance of imperfections in information, bankruptcy and banks. The second part examines the policy implications of the new paradigm emphasizing loanable fund demand and supply, and demonstrates its relevance to our understanding of two recent historical episodes--the East Asian financial crisis and the 1991 U.S. recession and subsequent recovery and boom. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Learn current Banking Reality & What the Future Holds
First off I am not a not an economist.Bought this book because I am very interested in how current monetary system works and what the future holds.This book fortunatly covers both topics; in great detail.The book goes over the advantages and disadvantages of the current way, how banks lend to grow the economy.It then goes over how that is being transformed and what we can expect in the future.The book is not as dry as most hard-core academic books, it is readible.My goal is to have a broad understanding of how the financial system of our world works, and this book did a great job of helping me understand.It does have a few advanced mathematical equations, I do not know how to solve them but they were very well explained...so at least I do understand what the equations are for.Great book it might be worth it to look for more books in the Raffaele Mattioli Lecture series. ... Read more

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This important collection presents an authoritative selectionof papers on "Institutional Conflicts and Complementarities" Thispublication is intent on building bridges between economics and theother social sciences. The focus is on the interaction betweenmonetary policy and wage bargaining institutions in European MonetaryUnion (EMU). Institutional Conflicts and Complementarities iswritten by acknowledged experts in their field. The outcome is a broadanalysis of the interactions of labour market actors and centralbanks. The volume addresses the recent changes in EMU. An importanttheoretical, empirical, and policy-relevant conclusion that emergesfrom Institutional Conflicts and Complementarities is that evenperfectly credible monetary conservatism has long-term real effects,even in equilibrium models with fully rational expectations. The contributions to Institutional Conflicts andComplementarities identify linkages between wage bargaininginstitutions and central banks with a particular focus on EMU. Weconsider complementarities between institutions located in differentareas of the political economy and ask: Can labour-market actors andindependent central banks interact in mutually reinforcing ways? Theanalyses in Institutional Conflicts and Complementarities studycritically the neutrality assumption under the conditions ofinstitutional interactions in EMU. ... Read more

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The book gives an overview of the implications of population ageing for economic development in general and financial systems in particular. It describes several challenges which the ageing process poses for central banks, giving special consideration to the situation in Europe. The first two chapters discuss the relationship between ageing and saving and between ageing and international capital flows. Other chapters consider the possible implications for financial markets. The final part of the volume raises issues which are of particular relevance for central banks, namely ageing and financial stability and how ageing will affect monetary policy. While the ageing problem has been the object of a growing debate in Europe during the past few years, little attention has been devoted so far to its monetary aspects. ... Read more

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"Writing in the June 1965 issue of theEconomic Journal, Harry G. Johnson begins with a sentence seemingly calibrated to the scale of the book he set himself to review: ""The long-awaited monetary history of the United States by Friedman and Schwartz is in every sense of the term a monumental scholarly achievement--monumental in its sheer bulk, monumental in the definitiveness of its treatment of innumerable issues, large and small . . . monumental, above all, in the theoretical and statistical effort and ingenuity that have been brought to bear on the solution of complex and subtle economic issues.""Friedman and Schwartz marshaled massive historical data and sharp analytics to support the claim that monetary policy--steady control of the money supply--matters profoundly in the management of the nation's economy, especially in navigating serious economic fluctuations. In their influential chapter 7, The Great Contraction--which Princeton published in 1965 as a separate paperback--they address the central economic event of the century, the Depression. According to Hugh Rockoff, writing in January 1965: ""If Great Depressions could be prevented through timely actions by the monetary authority (or by a monetary rule), as Friedman and Schwartz had contended, then the case for market economies was measurably stronger.""Milton Friedman won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2000 for work related to A Monetary History as well as to his other Princeton University Press book, A Theory of the Consumption Function (1957)." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (13)

Interesting, well researched and informative
A departure from other Friedman books this is truly a historical walk down 100 years. Not too much commentary about whether Friedman agrees/disagrees with monetary policy but it's so well researched you can't help but get caught up in the historical significance of monetary policy.. and boy does history ever repeat itself. Not for the faint at heart, this book is for the serious economic student.

Revolutionary, albeit flawed, Monetary Analysis
"A Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960" by Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz is an epic in economic literature.The authors concisely analyze nearly 100 years of monetary history and prove why monetary economics matter.Their work, originally published in 1963, offers immaculate insight into endogenous and exogenous economic variables that shaped US history.

When reviewing a classic text it is important to test it on two criteria: 1) it's ingenuity; and, 2) it's validity.In regards to ingenuity "Monetary History" paved the way towards a statistically grounded analysis of macroeconomics (in this case monetary theory).While "Monetary History" was groundbreaking it's truly memorable aspect is Ch7's "The Great Contraction".This chapter, which is now known as the money hypothesis, revolutionized the way economists thought about the Great

Deprhttp://www.amazon.com/review/R1C118WNLAM4I/ref=cm_cr_pr_cmt?ie=UTF8&ASIN=0691137943&nodeID=#wasThisHelpfulession.Ultimately, this analysis proved to be incorrect.

Why the work remains a classic, even though flawed, is because the sheer difficulty in producing such a feat.Friedman and Schwartz managed to put together a comprehensive 100 year monetary history in (a short) 700 pages.The amount of research required to take on such a project is hard to grasp.The footnotesin the "Monetary History" give a small glimpse into how much work was required to create this book.They alone are the size of a mid-sized economic text.Throughout the text the authors synthesis a wide range of evidence, often being forced to recalculate the statistics given to them, and somehow come out with a fairly consistent history.

The work is so encompassing it is impossible in an Amazon book review to point out all of the prescient ideas presented in a "Monetary History".Here is a short list off the top of my head: 1) money matters in the short-run; 2) active gov't policy can prevent bank panics if correctly implemented; 3) Consistent misperception regarding economics have OFTEN created bad policy (both in the private and public sphere);4) the gold standard was never good (and we never had anything near an ACTUAL gold standard);5) An excellent review of business cycle contractions between 1844-1960; 6)Everything you wanted to know about the composition of banking mechanisms from 1867-1960.There are many, many more...

Friedman's "Monetary History" analysis does occasionally feel awkward (this tends to happen when his quantitative analysis does not account for history and he is forced to make qualitative assumptions).1) The entire Great Contraction rested on the qualitative factor of not having a 'Great Man' running the Federal Reserve; 2) Deflation existed side by side with rapid economic expansion in the 1880's, which Friedman finds interesting, but no attempt is made to ascertain whether monetary issues had any recessionary effects on potential growth; 3) The entire 48-60' analysis exerts a strong ideological stance that did not seem to exist in the earlier chapters.(many more minor hiccups exist and for the most part Friedman is willing to admit when he cannot reasonably prove causation).

However, two major problems exist in the "Monetary History".

1) The assumption that money does not matter in the long-run is unsupported through their analysis.Friedman and Schwartz fail to find any long lasting effectsregarding changes in the price level and money stock to changes in economic activity.This view, which is a very simple look at correlations, is essentially embracing a negation.They fail to find a connection between monetary economics and business cycles so it must not exist.Though this view has little empirical evidence it is made several times throughout the work (and in almost every case the statement seems to be completely out of place).The claim that money is 'neutral' has forever changed economics by being included in the Neoclassical Synthesis.

2) Friedman's chapter on the velocity of money is by far the weakest part of his text.After going on for ~700 pages with precise attention to quantitative analysis Friedman is forced to argue, in a mere 3 pages, that changes in velocity must be due to rational expectations (with little empirical evidence).Friedman's assumption that Velocity exhibits a secular decline with rising income is CRUCIAL when analyzing Monetarism.The Quantity Theory of Money states: Money*Velocity=Price*Output --- M*V=P*Y (this is a rearrangement of Fisher's equation -- See Michael Emmett Bradely's review for a far superior theoretical analysis of this equation).If Velocity can be considered constant then changes in M = changes in P*Y.This means all that is needed to have stable business cycles is an unchanging, or better yet a slightly increasing, money supply.HOWEVER, this flawed assumption is why Monetarism is so difficult to implement into policy. Friedman's tentative assumption in his "Monetary History" became the dogma of Monetarism.

"A Monetary History of the US, 1867-1960" is a revolutionary, albeit flawed, canon in economic literature.

study / interested in econ / political economy ? -- must read !


do not have more to say than the header ..... basically :-) (it's more of "working oneself through" than "reading over", or while doing something else at the same time but it is very much worth it and it sets the record straight on many fallacies still heard/told about the great depression)

An Eye-Opening Revelation
Myths, misconceptions, and wishful thinking pervade the study of US history. Economic history has been especially prone to revisionists who twist and distort facts, or who fabricate lies outright. This is perhaps most evident in the Great Depression, as many blame the "do nothing" policies of Herbert Hoover and champion FDR's New Deal. These individuals would be truly enlightened by Friedman's Monetary History, which sheds light on the true nature of the Great Depression. Friedman convincingly argues that both Hoover and Roosevelt prolonged the Depression with inflationary policies.A useful text for anyone interested in reason, truth, and economics.

Break from the norm.
This is perhaps the best work if you are simply looking for examples of how government intervention can cause harm instead of good. Additionally, this has been the work that pushed the recognition of monetarism into the heat of the economic mindset.

This being said, it is important to note that the theory underlying this endeavor is not an ample explanation of the Great Depression as it is conventionally used. The bottom line is that there are simply far too many exogenous and endogenous factors that operate regardless of what or what not government policy may influence. Additionally, the compilation of data and analyses from financial markets over the years shows with clarity that Friedman's general framework is a very special exception, not a rule. Read Michael Emmett Brady's review, as he seems to touch on this more.

Ultimately, the conclusion, in my opinion, is not worth the effort. Everyone long understood, if perhaps not the extent, the potential for intervention through misguided fiscal or monetary policy to cause harm. Friedman's methodology is far too ideologically tempered to continue to be taken seriously. However, the compilation of statistical data alone make this a necessary purchase for anyone serious about (ironically) economic history in the United States. It is (Edit - was) also a highly original analysis of depression economics, for those interested. Even with the truckload of ideology and faulty, sometimes absurd, assumptions taken to build a logical framework, this book is worth reading simply because of its influence on economics as a discipline. The main question is its relevance.

Conclusion - Buy this for compiled data and statistics, and to understand the thinking that has had huge effect, if not for quite a while dominated, mainstream economics. Leave the ideology at the door. ... Read more

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Insight into the tricky world of Monetary Policy
This book consists of collected papers from leading economic intellectuals and their discussions on a variety of economic issues.One of the contrbutors is N. Gregory Mankiw, a Harvard professor, whose lucid stylemakes him eminently readable.But be warned this book is not for novices! A solid understanding of many microeconomic and macroeconomic issues is anecesary prerequisite to reading this book. ... Read more

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Foreign exchange intervention is frequently being used by central banks in countries which have a floating exchange rate. Most theoretical monetary policy models, however, do not take this phenomenon into account. This book contributes to close this gap between theory and practice by interpreting foreign exchange intervention as an additional monetary policy instrument for inflation targeting central banks. In-depth empirical analysis of the foreign exchange operations and interest rate policy of five inflation targeting countries (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Sweden and the United Kingdom) demonstrate how foreign exchange intervention is used in practice. ... Read more

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Organized into three sections of increasing complexity. Part One examines money in isolation—demand for fiat money, a comparison of fiat and commodity monies, inflation and exchange rate. The second section adds capital to study money's interaction with other assets and banking. Lastly, it looks at money's effect on saving, investment and output through its effect on nonmonetary government debt. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Review of the book I just bought
This book is just what I need and want! Good book for economis and business learners.

Beautiful; economics as it should be written
Economists have a responsiblity to communicate as simply as possible.Too often complex mathematics are an egotistic tool of the economist that merely frustrates the reader.Champ and Freeman's Modeling Monetary Economies is a wonderful volume that explains tough issues in monetary economics by building upon Wallace and Bryant's overlapping generations (OLG) model.

The OLG framework is a very simple framework that has its limitations, yet it is a powerful explanatory device.Champ and Freeman apply it to the following exercises:
* Introduce money into an economy--any grad student of economics (as I once was) will tell you this is no simple task!We take money for granted, of course, but mathematical models tend to imply that money is unnecessary!Just getting money into an economic model without unreasonable assumptions is itself an accomplishment.

* Inflation--again, not easy to do in other mathematical models of money--and anticipated inflation

* International currency exchange and the indeterminancy of the exchange rate

* Central banking and changes to the money supply

* Banks and lending

* Deficits and the national debt

* The interaction of all of the above

The book also has exercises in it that apply and extend the models introduced in each chapter.

RECOMMENDATION
I recommend this book for advanced year undergrads (in mathematical econ programs) and graduate students.It really is a great book that builds a conceptual knowledge of the interaction of the various components of monetary economics.This is useful for understanding more complicated dynamic optimization models.And it provides models that are useful in their own right and relevant as the basis for further (ie., dissertation) research.

A thoughtful introduction to mathematical economics
This book is an example of how mathematics is intelligently used in economics, and the understanding of the latter is thereby enhanced. Only basic algebra is used, yet the authors are able to make non-trivial explanation about economic phenomena, from why money must exist to inflation to payment system. The text is mathematical and abstract, but as I read it, my frame of mind remains firmly that of an economist, and not of a mathematician (which is as it should be). The text is carefully written, flowing and anticipative of difficulties that a reader may have.

This is not an introductory text to economics, and I reject the idea that those with strong mathematical background should be introduced to economics in a different way from others. Any beginner, mathematical or not, should read Samuelson and the like first.

Academic, organized,and extremely concise
This book is a very good introduction to quantative monetary theories. Readers with science or engineering background can especially benefit from authors' concise mathematical expressions. It gives a clear and academic view about fundamental theories, so don't expect to see a lot of economicaldata or "stories". ... Read more

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For monetary policymakers worldwide, developing a practical understanding of how monetary policy transmits to the economy is a day-to-day challenge. The data such policymakers have is imperfect, the maps they use are continually redrawn. With such uncertainty, understanding this complicated issue is rarely straightforward.

This book, a collaboration between some of the finest minds working on monetary theory in the world, helps to provide a foundation for understanding monetary policy in all its complex glory. Using models, case studies and new empirical evidence, the contributors to this book help readers on many levels develop their technical expertise.

Students of macroeconomics, money and banking and international finance will find this to be a good addition to their reading lists. At the same time, policymakers and professionals within banking will learn valuable lessons from a thorough read of this book's pages.

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Customer Reviews (3)

About as bad as a textbook can get
Professor Handa's graduate course, the notes of which he compiled into this text, is dry, dated, off-topic, and in most cases downright irrelevant.The text itself is much, much worse.What it lacks in style, it makes up for in tediousness.On the bright side for those of the classical school of thought, its obvious bias combines seamlessly with a reliance on dubious logical manipulations to discredit Keynesian theory far better than even the most eloquent neoclassical author could.Also, for an economics text it is very reasonably priced.

First off, the focus of this book is NOT monetary economics.This is a text on Keynesian macroeconomics.Not neo-Keynesian macroeconomics, either, but good old-fashioned Keynesianism from the 60's and 70's (the author got his PhD in the mid-60's, and the vast majority of the sources cited in the book are pre-1980).It is compendious, but dated (rather like professor Handa, himself).Because the text is 750 pages long, there is a fair amount of monetary material, but if a professor tried to use this book as a basis for a class, 1) it would take two or three semesters to teach, and 2) after the first semester there would be very few students left in the class.Curiously (or not), this is exactly how things work in McGill University's graduate-level courses in monetary economics, where the book was born.

Surprisingly, Professor Handa wrote this 750-page monstrosity of a text without managing to make it comprehensive.Take, for example, gold.One would think that a multi-semester course on money would cover the gold standard, its pros and cons, how it developed, how it was moved away from in modern economies, and why it was able to function with such success over thousands of years and hundreds of vastly differing cultures and governments.Well, in this case you'd be wrong.Look in the index of Handa's Monetary Economics and you will find gold referenced ONCE.Flip to that page and you will see that in Handa's view the sole importance of gold with respect to money and monetary theory was that the gold standard system used under Bretton Woods necessitated the formation of the IMF.

Okay, so there is no gold, but what is there?In short, Keynes-and lots of him.In fact, the old guy even pops up where you would least expect him.Take, for example, this line from the chapter on "Expectations in Macroeconomics and Monetary Policy":

"Many economists have, in fact, speculated that the rational expectations hypothesis been available in Keynes' days, he would have incorporated it into his work."

This may in fact be true (the book has no footnote naming the economists who allegedly speculated such things).It may also be true that Adam Smith would have incorporated REH into his work, but I hardly see the point making such a statement in a textbook.

What else do you get?How about a smoke-and-mirrors "disproof" of Walras' Law?Just how do you "disprove" Walras' Law, you might ask?And why would you want to?And what would that accomplish, anyway?Trust me, you have to read it to believe it.

So, is there anything worthwhile in this book?Surprisingly, yes.The text is actually designed a lot like a general historical account of macroeconomic theory, complete with short and concise summaries of some rather important papers and theories that many students would probably rather read in abbreviated summary form.What is the Baumol-Tobin transactions demand for money and how does it work?What is the Lucas Supply Rule and how does it compare to the Friedman Supply Rule?What authors and papers deal with sticky prices, efficiency wages, or labor hoarding?What is the proof behind the idea of Ricardian equivalence?Check the index, its all here.

In summary, this is text is poorly organized, strongly biased, incredibly boring, and mostly only tangentially relevant to monetary economics.It may possibly be useful to novice graduate students looking for a summary of many broad macroeconomic ideas (particularly old ones) and/or papers who don't want to plow through the equally tedious primary sources.In good conscience, however, I can only recommend it as a highly effective sleep aid, and not a tool of economic learning.

Excellent
I am currently using the book for my Master Degree level class in money and banking. The book is EXCELLENT. It is up-to-date with current issues, comprehensive and complete. My students love it. The presentation at the beginning of each chapter is outstanding. One of very few books that presents money at both the micro and macro levels. The discussions of money in Walrasian general equilibrium models and overlapping generation models are exceptional. The review and discussion questions at the end of each chapter are very helpful to students.

Comprehensive, but dry and out-of-date.
This book is comprehensive in covering all of the conventional, albeit dated, topics in monetary economics. However, it lacks the clarity and consistency of modern textbooks. By the end of the book you will have trouble differentiating one theory from another, as many key arguments are vague or self-contradictory. In addition, very little will be presented to spark your enthusiasm for the material. If you are a professor looking for a course text, this book may be a good guide for forming a curriculum, but please do not subject your students to its dull, meandering style of presentation. Advanced students deserve a book that is more cutting edge. ... Read more

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The exchange rate is a crucial variable linking a nation's domestic economy to the international market. Thus choice of an exchange rate regime is a central component in the economic policy of developing countries and a key factor affecting economic growth.

Historically, most developing nations have employed strict exchange rate controls and heavy protection of domestic industry-policies now thought to be at odds with sustainable and desirable rates of economic growth. By contrast, many East Asian nations maintained exchange rate regimes designed to achieve an attractive climate for exports and an "outer-oriented" development strategy. The result has been rapid and consistent economic growth over the past few decades.

Changes in Exchange Rates in Rapidly Developing Countries explores the impact of such diverse exchange control regimes in both historical and regional contexts, focusing particular attention on East Asia. This comprehensive, carefully researched volume will surely become a standard reference for scholars and policymakers. ... Read more

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Excellent but outdated
At the time of publication this must have been THE book for those involved in East Asian currencies. Published in the late-90s it is now outdated. Still there is some good stuff for those wanting an academic background on the Asian currencies. Only academics or experts will find it useful. ... Read more

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Written especially for portfolio managers, financial analysts, and corporate economists, this volume considers the practical implications of government economic policies. The contributors illustrate how incentives and disincentives affect economic behavior and the performance of the economy through an in-depth discussion of monetary, fiscal, and international economic issues. In addition, the authors present a unique top-down approach that enables the reader to trace the impact of government policies through the economy and thereby discover the investment strategies most likely to be successful within a given policy context. ... Read more

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Written by America’s most respected Fed watcher–Dr. David Jones–Unlocking the Secrets of the Fed gets inside the world of monetary and fiscal policymaking and explains how understanding and anticipating the actions of the Federal Reserve is critical to your investment success.

This straightforward and well-rounded guide offers a wealth of practical information on the leading economic policy institution in the world–the Federal Reserve. This unique book:

• Addresses the impact of Federal Reserve actions on the economy and the average American’s wealth-creation potential
• Closely examines the Fed’s policy objectives, operating techniques, and favorite financial and economic indicators
• Reviews the modern-day Fed’s main challenges
• Underscores the important role that psychology plays in our nation’s economic expansions and contractions
• Explains asset price bubbles and the implications for the economy
• Assesses the performance of contemporary Fed leaders such as William McChesney Martin, Paul Volcker, and Alan Greenspan

As one of the pioneers of "Fed watching," Dr. Jones knows all there is to know about the Federal Reserve. Take this opportunity to learn how the Federal Reserve’s decisions affect your investments as well as the economy as a whole. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Waste of money!
Very elementary book and writing style. The author puts himself forward as an experienced Fed Watcher but his ideas and theories seem naive and elementary.You can learn more about the Fed by surfing the Fed's website.Author keeps repeating himself like he is senile or something!???The author does not offer any insight one could not glean from reading Business week or the Wall Street Journal regularly.

Don't waste your money on this!

Save your money
This book accomplished none of its promises.It was repetitive and poorly written at best.If you are truly interested in learning how to be a Fed watcher, this book will not help you accomplish that goal.Do not waste your time with this book. ... Read more