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Rating: 
Summary: Understand How the Federal Reserve Works
Review: 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: 
Summary: A blatant whitewash.
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: A blatant whitewash.
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: Touches on everything, but not deeply
Review: This book goes into a tremendous amount of detail on several subjects I simply had no interest in. If you want to get a job at the Fed, for example, this book has an entire chapter dedicated to just that. How about developing our communities? Because the Federal Reserve Board is required by law to promote local economic development, there is a chapter on this as well. Would you like to know if we Americans are saving enough? No worries. Since the Federal Reserve helps member banks develop consumer education programs, there is a chapter on savings, too.
For the general reader, where this book is very helpful is in showing just how many responsibilities the Fed has. There are educational, regulatory, supervisory, as well as the more obvious monetary roles the Fed must play. It, of course, has a national role as America's central bank, but it also has a powerful international role that is less well-known. This book gives an abbreviated history of the institution and America's banking history, and it also has an entire chapter on the circumlocutory way Fed Chairmen express themselves in public (called "Fedspeak").
What the book is less helpful with is detail. Everything is discussed, but nothing is dealt with at even moderate length.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Guide To Understanding The Fed
Review: This book was written by an insider. This is not a bad thing. This book is a great tool to help anyone understand the workings of the Federal Reserve System. Whether or not someone agrees with how the Fed runs itself is a seperate matter from this books intention and who this book was created for. This book does not get into philosophical idealogy of economic systems and it shouldn't. It accurately discusses the tools the Fed uses to help steer the economy in the direction they want it to go. It also explains the layout of the structure of the Fed. This book is good for anyone curious about the structure / tools of the Fed and why it does what it does. The Fed helps run our economy and this book shows how pretty decently. It won't disappoint you, as it is straight-forward and comprehendable. Great for anyone who works in banking / finance / invesments.
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