Rating: 
Summary: A Let Down
Review: The less than stellar writing skills shocked me. Maestro is my first Woodward book. Sentence structure and word choice shows little effort or imagination. I got the feeling that he regretted taking on this project but was determined to make money on it in the near term rather than deferring it to a time he would be up to it. ... This is likely to be the poorest book ever to be written on Greenspan looking backward and forward. Woodward got walloped in this competition. Check out Greenspan The Man Behind Money by Justin Martin before you risk your money on this one. Wordward writes of Greenspan as a bright robot. Martin fleshes out an interesting character that is fun to read.While Woodward derides the economic knowledge of many Federal Reserve officials and politicians, his own economic knowledge shortcomings prevent his capturing the really big story behind the events. He is forced to exaggerate the potential drama behind nearly every tiny change in the federal funds rate. He has a complete lack of understanding of inflation risk and trivializes inflation levels of 3-4%. He does not even touch on the fact that having failed to stop inflation during the more than decade long boom we now have a new floor. It is not zero. The markets will anticipate long run inflation as highly likely to exceed 4% making current bond prices vulnerable. He appears clueless in the linkage of inflated stock prices and excessive money growth. He has made very little effort to research Federal reserve powers generally and stock market credit authority particularly. The idea that he could try to report on Greenspan's activities and provide the nuances with out understanding and describing Federal Reserve powers and regulations is flabbergasting. In a desperate reach for fabricated excitement, Woodward portrays the American economy constantly on the verge of collapse in every monetary crisis. While his desire is to show Greenspan as near superhuman, there comes a point he ought to realize that with crisis after crisis agilely shaken off we see how powerful the system is in current times. Greenspan is maestro for the most powerful competitive, resilient economic system ever developed. He does a good job placing the irrational exuberance problem in contest. Having watched stock market levels become excessive, Greenspan and the Fed had a real problem on their hands. While they in part created it, the problem of putting the genie back in the bottle without great damage remains one the most brutal policy problems for the Fed for as far as the eye can see. He recklessly brands Greenspan a "militant laissez-faire capitalist." It reveals Woodward's ultra liberal economic views. Can you really think the someone unrepresentative of mainstream economic theory could make it to Chairman of the Fed. I don't think so. He indicts Greenspan as insensitive to the poor. Yet, he offers not even dribble on the struggle to balance high employment and inflation. There is one heck of a lot more high drama in that endeavor, than his grinding discussion of each little rate change. I read every word of this book hoping that the wrap up would be worth the trip. In the end his Epilogue was lifeless. Knowing a little something about economics and being disappointed in the integrity of this book certainly makes me wonder about the authors integrity in his other books. I will think very carefully before I buy another Woodward. If you are a economics junkie like me buy the book an see what a twit Woodward is on this one. It may help us understand why press coverage on the economy and business is so poor. We can only hope that Greenspan will write his own book. So far no author sees the really big exciting story of what Greenspan has accomplished and what he has left undone or unresolved.
Rating: 
Summary: Far From His Best
Review: Ok, I admit it; I am a big fan of Woodward. I will read everything he puts out and probably enjoy it. With that being said, I was not excited to read this book. I am not all that interested in the workings of the Fed and Greenspan has never stuck me as a very interesting character, but given that it was a Woodward book I gave it a shot. So my verdict is that I was glad the book was just a bit over 200 pages in length. Woodward covers all the "interesting" issues that faced Greenspan, the 87 crash, the Clinton budget plan, the Mexican crisis, the South Korean problem and the collapse of the hedge fund LTCM. The problem I had was that they were not written well enough to make a non-fed watcher really that excited. I also thought that the book was only skimming the surface, I wanted a bit more back ground on the issues and effects to the world. If you have read some of the other books by Woodward on Clinton then you also see some repeated information here, which added to my overall blah feeling about the book. For my money Woodward is the best political writer in the business today. He has so many contacts that many times in reading the book you could swear he has the offices bugged of the subjects the book is focusing on. That is why I was disappointed with this book. You get all the standard Woodward items with the book, great details, wonderful he said - she said conversations that really make you feel like a fly on the wall, an easy to follow and well laid out book. Unfortunately, he still has some hang up with footnotes, I think the use of them would only enhance the books, but he is the author. In my opinion this is a marginally interesting book that I was glad was only 200 + pages long. If you like Woodward you will like this book enough to finish it, but will probably walk away disappointed. If you are interested in the Fed then I would assume this is a first step and will come away looking for more details. Overall I am hoping the next Woodward book makes this disappointment fade from memory.
Rating: 
Summary: The Little Engine that Couldn't
Review: I'm not really sure why Woodward chose Greenspan as a subject in the first place. He doesn't come across as an exceptionally interesting guy...in fact, Woodward doesn't give Greenspan much characterization. He's just a very intelligent number-cruncher who decides to raise or lower interest rates. A few pages of the book perked my attention, but I fell asleep during much of it. There is also just a bit too much Alan-worshipping for my taste. As much as Woodward tries to argue that Greenspan does not act with hidden intentions and tries his best to persuade the members of the FOMC before making his rate changes, he makes a few too many unilateral decisions to ignore. Woodward acts as if Greenspan is always above politics and is uncannily unbiased. It seems as if Woodward owed Greenspan a favor. Or maybe he had to complete a book deal and thought, this'll do. It must be a bestseller only because it was written by Bob Woodward. I should probably mention here that economics have never interested me, and most of the concepts are beyond my understanding. Yet as a biography alone, it is bland. Unless you are acutely interested in every rate change in the last 14 years, read the title and move on.
Rating:
Summary: Not big enough for a doorstop.
Review: ...It's actually cheaper to throw this book away than to resell it. This is an "Emperor's New Clothes" book, where no one's pointing out the obvious nakedness of the emperor but are in fact hyping those snazzy threads.
Rating: 
Summary: On the Money!
Review: Maestro is a nice, short book that is already out of date. It is as much about the Clinton-era economic boom as it is about Alan Greenspan. It ends by asking how long the boom can go. Bob Woodward has written three books, which prominently highlight aspects of the Clinton era ' The Agenda, Shadow and Maestro. Maestro is the only one in which Clinton and his team look good ' really good. The approach to the economy, especially their cutting of the deficit, balancing of the budget and internationalist approach, both contributed to the boom and gave the Fed room to further sustain the boom. The Reagan and Bush administrations are portrayed as too political in their decision making, while the Clinton-Greenspan partnership is portrayed as the model. Sadly, this model and the technical aspects of managing the government did not and don't get the attention that things like sex scandals do. Maestro helped me better appreciate Greenspan, but also better appreciate what we had with the Clinton administration. By comparison, the present Bush administration with its excessive tax cuts and deficit spending seems very scary. My one major criticism of Maestro goes back to it being already out of date. Little space is devoted to explaining the structure of the Fed, what exactly it does, or even what Greenspan does on a day to day basis. In a way, it is like a very long newspaper or magazine article more than it is a book. But it is enjoyable and useful, at least for the moment.
Rating:
Summary: We though we knew what money was
Review: This is a book which seeks to capitalize on the superstardom of Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan. When the book came out Greenspan was the economic hero and genius who, seemingly, presided over, or even engineered the greatest economic expansion is human history. Hence, a book about his day to day trials and tribulations seemed like a natural bestseller.
But, sadly, the book completely misses the key and critical facts about the supremely important Federal reserve system. So what is the point in reading it? Instead it is devoted to a minute by minute partial description of Greenspan's daily job related concerns while completely missing the larger context of the hugely important and controversial Federal Reserve.
Greesnspan's work life is portrayed as a tense nail biting quest to divine the level of economic activity, so he can either increase or inflate the money supply to stimulate sluggish economic activity or to decrease or deflate the money supply to slow down too rapid economic activity. All of this goes on under intense pressure from politicians who generally pressure him to make more money regardless in the future inflation it will cause so the economy will look vigorous and healthy while they are in office or about to run for reelection.
Some absolutely essential truths that are ignored are as follows:
1) Federal banks have been the scourge of civilization (even to the point of leading to Nazi Germany) because they generally have printed money for themselves in order to steal it, or in the false belief that printing money for general distribution would make average people more wealthy and help an economy grow. In truth, printing money just drives up prices (inflation) but as no long term effect on economic activity, wealth, or output.
2) Greenspan is an ardent Republican who therefore accepts the idea that merely printing money is senseless and destructive. In fact he has been so scared of Federal banks falling into Democratic hands that he has supported eliminating them in favor of a gold standard because, then, corrupt or stupid gov't officials couldn't make more gold. This is perhaps the single most important step any country can take to free itself from corrupt or stupid gov't. 3) Democrats don't accept basic truths about money. They like to print it because: a) it is easier to get it that way, rather than through oppressive taxation, and b) they are so addicted to gov't power they can't resist the notion of printing money and stealing it or printing it and spending it on their subjects in a totally false act of gov't largess.
For a specific education about these issues in purely economic terms the master is Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman. For a specific look at how Democrats and Republicans divide on most issues (including money), despite the media's attempts to cover the differences up, I recommend the classic, Understanding The Difference Between Democrats And Republicans.
Rating:
Summary: The Rating Game
Review: With the same dogged thoroughness he used to blow the Watergate conspiracy wide open, Bob Woodward debunks the inner workings both of the mind of Alan Greenspan and of the labyrinthine workings of the institution he's come to embody. Over the past fifteen years the management of monetary policy has emerged from the shadows of secrecy to become a spectator sport in America. In "Maestro" Woodward brings us through this process step by step, all the while painting a many-shaded portrait of the man who brought it all about. Greenspan emerges in this chronicle as a benign dictator disguised as a skilled concensus builder. Supremely confident in his interpretation of economic events, from the inception of his tenure he handled the Board of Governors with deft political skills, listening to everyone while pushing his agenda forward with ruthless determination. Assuming the post right before the stock market crash of 1987, he has pushed a consistent policy of fighting inflation and pounding the table for debt reduction. The most fascinating and confounding part of his job, figuring out how productivity gains have altered received wisdom on inflation and employment, remains the key to his legacy today. Woodward provides a great rundown of how politics rule in this quintessentially "apolitical" institution. Greenspan's relationships with Presidents Reagan, Bush, and Clinton twist and turn with the political exigencies of the time--elections, wars, scandals. It's ironic that Clinton emerges as his hands-down favorite, given his understanding of the role of debt reduction in lowering long-term interest rates. Greenspan, a long-time Ayn Randian libertarian with a Republican affiliation, never felt that the Republican incumbents had any intuitive grasp of what mattered economically for the country beyond election time. Anyone who thinks they knew a lot about the Greenspan years will know better after they read this book. The story continues, with an afterword in the paperback edition about the present recession and war on terrorism. Greenspan seems far from finished with his mission, so perhaps Woodward will owe him a sequel in a few years.
Rating: 
Summary: Insight into the Fed
Review: Easy read, and an economics degree is not required. The most fascinating part of Woodward's book is his description of the Fed's action during the "crash" of 1987. Opend my eyes as to how fragile our way of life really is. I highly recommend!!
Rating:
Summary: Maestro, Good Title
Review: MAESTRO By Bob Woodward
I read this book the first time in 2000 or early 2001 and like it. I went back and looked this book over in August of 2001 based on what the market has done in the last year. I like Greenspan and what he has done to bring the market down to a "soft landing", although a lot of people out there won't agree with me about the soft landing. Incidentally, I like Bob Woodward's style of writing-he is good.
I believe the people should have paid more attention to Greenspan in 1996 he said the said that they were being "irrational exuberance" about the stock market. That's the other side of the coin from "irrational" fear which some people are getting a dose of now. Anyway, this book is good--Greenspan is a true Maestro with a computer in economics. Than God he has a computer, it speeds up his calculations by nearly an infinite amount! I believe he is doing what he wanted to do, bring the stock market down to soft landing. There were billions of dollars that had to disappear to bring the market down to a reasonable figure after years of "irrational exuberance" by the whole world. There is one thing I do not believe that I saw in any book, the much lower price per share adjustment brought about by a company's programming earning down for the amount of goods sold as the company's income decreased. You see in many books the P/E (Price to Earnings Ratio) for a "bull" market and the P/E for a "bear" market, but you do not see the distortion brought about in these figures by how many good they didn't sell or how much service they didn't sell? In other words there is a big change to their bottom and top P/E that you have to factor in before you these statistics. Sounds simple-it isn't.
I would suggest the less complex book, Riding the Bear by Sy Harding to enhance your enjoyment of Bob Woodward book Maestro. When you throw politics into the mess you can really got confused. Wait until 7x year-old Greenspan retires!
Happy days,
Roger Lee
Rating:
Summary: Generally enjoyable
Review: A gift from friends, I greatly enjoyed this title. It isn't perfect, by any means, but is deserving of praise as well as criticism. Despite being occasionally obsequious and overly-flattering towards the object of his writing, Woodward does a good job of presenting Greenspan as human: at times honorable and at others manipulative. Examples: I really appreciated the awkwardness that Greenspan encounters when proposing to Andrea Mitchell; on the other hand, Greenspan appeared to be a calculating villain during the affair with vice chairman Mullins. Woodward does a good job of re-creating the frenetic moods of the global economic near-meltdowns, but it tended to get old. Better still is Greenspan's sense of unease about the "soft landings" (the last of which turn really hard, really quick). My biggest problem with the book is that, towards the end, there were quite a few typographical errors, and sentences seemed to occasionally stop in mid-thought. In sum, this is a work of tribute to Alan Greenspan, perhaps deservedly, but it is lackluster in certain areas. However, Woodward succeeds in making it interesting to get an inside look at a man who is so outwardly boring.
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