Generous Beth Fedyn sent me an Advance Reading Copy of Christopher Leonard’s brilliant The Lords of Easy Money: How the Federal Reserve Broke the American Economy. Of course I dropped everything and read it immediately.

Christopher Leonard uses an historical approach to matching the actions of the Federal Reserve–under Alan Greenspan, Ben Bernanke, Janet Yellen, and Jerome Powell–and the dire economic consequences of their monetary policies.

Leonard starts with Greenspan who for 15 years, mostly kept interest rates low. Everybody loved that…until the housing bubble–fueled by those low interest rates–almost collapsed our economy in 2008. Ben Bernanke invented “Quantitative Easing” to stimulate the economy after the 2008 crash. But that resulted in a slow growing economy. Janet Yellen balanced economic growth and inflation during her term as head of the Federal Reserve. But Trump replaced her with Jerome Powell, our present Fed chief, who faces the problems of inflation and an economy with too few workers caused by the Pandemic.

Christopher Leonard takes us behind the scenes of the Fed meetings and shows the disputes that took place while the Federal Reserve outwardly projected unity.

This week Jerome Powell signaled at least THREE interest rate increases in 2022. Yes, everything will cost more so BUY IT NOW! The increases are aimed at reducing inflation which is at an uncomfortable of 6.8% (the Fed target is 2%). If you want to understand our monetary system and learn why inequity has risen because of the Fed, The Lords of Easy Money will supply you with all the answers. Thanks, Beth! You’re the best! GRADE:A (The Lords of Easy Money will be published January 11, 2022)

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

PART 1: “RESPECTFULLY, NO” — 1

1. Going Below Zero — 3
2. Serious Numbers — 33
3. The Green Inflation(s) — 53
4. Fedspeak — 71
5. The Overmighty Citizen– 91
6. Money Bomb — 107

PART 2: THE AGE OF ZIRP — 123

7. Quantitative Quagmire — 125

8. The Fixer — 151

9. The Risk Machine — 171

10. The ZIRP Regime — 185

11. The Hornig Rule — 201

12. Totally Normal — 221

PART 3: LET THEM EAT ASSETS — 239

13. The Invisible Bailout — 241

14. Infection — 261

15. Winners and Losers — 275

16. The Long Crash — 293

Notes — 307

A Plain-English Glossary of Important Term in this Book — 343

Acknowledgements — 353

Index — 359