Review

The Politics of Money: the Fed under Alan Greenspan offers an insiders look at the contemporary Federal Reserve period.  Written in 1991, David Jones is only able to look at the first several years of Chairman Greenspan's tenancy. In spite of this the book is able to describe the workings of the Fed in more detail than any other I have encountered.

The first merit of the work is that it offers a history of the Federal Reserve.  It chronicles the Federal Reserves conflicts with the Treasury department and with Congressmen who in many cases don't know what they are really trying to change.  Also available are descriptions of each of the Federal Reserve Chairmen from Marriner Eccles to Paul Volcker to Greenspan.  Several different historical  economic events are mentioned and explained, as well as the Federal Reserve's role throughout them.  They include the creation of a European Monetary Union, a credit squeeze, the LBO craze, and the stock market crash of the late 1980's.

The book is well written and entertaining, the only drawback is that if you really want a novel to analyze the current Fed's work this is not the one.  For other issues such as Fed independence, Fed Chairmen, and political influences on the Fed, this is an excellent work and well worth the time to read.

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