The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Federal Reserve
Author: Lita Epstein, Preston Martin
List Price: $18.95
Our Price: Click to see the latest and low price
ISBN: 0028643232
Publisher: Alpha Books (04 March, 2003)
Sales Rank: 214,710
Average Customer Rating: 3 out of 5
Customer Reviews
Rating: 5 out of 5
Understand How the Federal Reserve Works
mrbigbeast obviously disagrees with the purposes of the Federal Reserve, but he seriously misrepresents what is in the book. His political leanings are not unique, but the fact of the matter is that the Federal Reserve System is the central bank of the United States and was created by the Congress with the passage of the Federal Reserve Act in 1913. The Federal Reserve System includes the central governmental agency, the Board of Governors located in Washington DC with responsibilities to report regularly to Congress, and twelve regional Federal Reserve Banks that are corporations whose shares are owned by the member banks. There is an entire chapter explaning the New York Fed and its unique powers, as well as a second chapter explaining the other reserve banks.Other chapters include Why Care About the Fed, How We Got a Federal Reserve, Fedspeak: The Secret Language of Money, and The Money Machine's Key Responsibiities. This book is an excellent overview if you want to know how the Fed works and how it impacts your daily life.
Rating: 1 out of 5
A blatant whitewash.
Starts with the outright lie that the Federal Reserve is a government agency (it is actually a private corporation with government-appointed "decision makers"). Continues with farcical statements such as "the number one goal of the Fed is still to avoid inflation", while conveniently defining inflation as a rise in prices, rather than bloating of the money supply. Like every book and pamphlet ever written by a past or present Fed insider, this book meticulously avoids ever mentioning the Fed's single most important and most frequently abused power - that of creating new money at will out of thin air. Since one of the authors was a vice chairman of the Fed, you can forget journalistic ignorance as the excuse. The most important piece of information about the Fed was omitted purposely, with careful phrasing and organization. An omission this needless and this monstrous can only throw gasoline on the flames of conspiracy theories. One's hopes surge momentarily at noticing a section called "Let's be open" about open market operations. Nothing but varnish. Most Idiot books are OK. This one can serve only as quick primer on the knowledge which is non-essential to John Q. Public. Do yourself a favor. Look deeper. Similar Products
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