Synopsis
The destructive legacy of the most powerful man in the world: Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve.
In
this eye-opening account, Peter Hartcher reexamines the achievements of
Alan Greenspan, the man who presided over the 1990s stock-market
bubble—perhaps the biggest speculative frenzy in history—and walked
away when it came crashing down, with his reputation apparently
unscathed. The U.S. economy is still struggling with the fallout from
Greenspan's tenure, which includes a bubble in housing prices, a rocky
recovery, and a vast federal deficit. His mistakes live on, as does the
question of what to do about bubbles.
Hartcher's careful
investigation of the most financially expensive event in American
history results in a gripping tale of failed leadership, excess, and
the bizarre politics behind the world's most powerful economy.
Publishers Weekly
Former Federal Reserve chairman Alan
Greenspan's famous 1996 pronouncement that an "irrational exuberance"
had gripped the American stock market was premature; the markets
continued to climb, reaching an exceptional peak in March 2000 before
sliding into a $7.8 trillion collapse. Hartcher (author of The Ministry
and an editor at the Sydney Morning Herald) turns his attention to the
culprits behind "the madness that was the Great American Bubble"-what
was in purely monetary terms, the single costliest event in American
history. The author blames corporations, Wall Street, the government
and the media, but chief among his targets is Greenspan himself, whom
Hartcher indicts for keeping interest rates low and investors'
attitudes cheery. In this account, Greenspan's retreat from the
critical position he staked in 1996, in the face of political
opposition and public mania, earns him a decisive share of
responsibility for the bubble and its consequences. Equal parts
revisionist history, economics lesson and admonitory polemic, the book
briskly moves through complex concepts with illustrative examples and
straightforward analysis. While the text is occasionally repetitive
(e.g., frequent mention of the crash of 1929), Hartcher's brisk, lively
approach transforms a potentially dry dissection of monetary policy
into an engaging cautionary tale. (May) Copyright 2006 Reed Business
Information.
Biography
Former Washington bureau chief and associate editor of the Australian Financial Review, Peter Hartcher is now the political and international editor for the Sydney Morning Herald. Author of The Ministry, he lives in Australia.
ISBN Numbers: ISBN-13: 978-0-393-06225-0 or ISNB-10: 0-39-006225-2
Condition: Used/Excellent - Hardback
