21st Century Monetary Policy: The Federal Reserve from the Great Inflation to COVID-19

21st Century Monetary Policy takes readers inside the Federal Reserve, explaining what it does and why.

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 Powell’s 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. Bernanke―former chair of the Federal Reserve and one of the  world’s leading economists―explains the Fed’s evolution and speculates  on its future. Taking a fresh look at the bank’s policymaking over the  past seventy years, including his own time as chair, Bernanke shows how  changes in the economy have driven the Fed’s 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 bank’s new policymaking tools, Bernanke also captures the  drama of moments when so much hung on the Fed’s decisions, as well as  the personalities and philosophies of those who led the institution.