num_pages: 512
description: The winner of the 2022 Nobel Prize in Economics and former chair of the Federal Reserve explains the transformation of one our most powerful and consequential institutions.In response to the COVID-19 pandemic the Federal Reserve deployed an extraordinary range of policy tools that helped prevent the collapse of the financial system and the U.S. economy. Chair Jerome Powell and his colleagues lent directly to U.S. businesses purchased trillions of dollars of government securities pumped dollars into the international financial system and crafted a new framework for monetary policy that emphasized job creation. These strategies would have astonished Powells late-20th-century predecessors from William McChesney Martin to Alan Greenspan and the advent of these tools raises new questions about the future landscape of economic policy. In 21st Century Monetary Policy  Ben S. Bernankeformer chair of the Federal Reserve and one of the worlds leading economistsexplains the Feds evolution and speculates on its future. Taking a fresh look at the banks policymaking over the past seventy years including his own time as chair Bernanke shows how changes in the economy have driven the Feds innovations. He also lays out new challenges confronting the Fed including the return of inflation cryptocurrencies increased risks of financial instability and threats to its independence. Beyond explaining the central banks new policymaking tools Bernanke also captures the drama of moments when so much hung on the Feds decisions as well as the personalities and philosophies of those who led the institution.
language: English
title: 21st Century Monetary Policy: The Federal Reserve from the Great Inflation to COVID-19
publisher: W. W. Norton & Company