A Monetary and Fiscal History of the United States, 1961-2021

By: Alan S. Blinder

Narrated by: Todd McLaren

Length: 15 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's summary

From the New York Times bestselling author, the fascinating story of US economic policy from Kennedy to COVID—filled with lessons for today

In this book, Alan Blinder, one of the world's most influential economists and one of the field's best writers, draws on his deep firsthand experience to provide an authoritative account of sixty years of monetary and fiscal policy in the United States. Spanning twelve presidents, from John F. Kennedy to Joe Biden, and eight Federal Reserve chairs, from William McChesney Martin to Jerome Powell, this is an insider's story of macroeconomic policy that hasn't been told before—one that is a pleasure to listen to, and as interesting as it is important.

Focusing on the most significant developments and long-term changes, Blinder traces the highs and lows of monetary and fiscal policy, which have by turns cooperated and clashed through many recessions and several long booms over the past six decades. From the fiscal policy of Kennedy's New Frontier to Biden's responses to the pandemic, the book takes listeners through the stagflation of the 1970s, the conquest of inflation under Jimmy Carter and Paul Volcker, the rise of Reaganomics, and the bubbles of the 2000s before bringing the story up through recent events—including the financial crisis, the Great Recession, and monetary policy during COVID-19.

©2022 Alan S. Blinder (P)2022 Ascent Audio

Many duplications in verbal text

Sentences duplicated a dozen or so times during performance, as if editor didn’t do a final check. The performance itself is excellent but the editing has this irritating flaw. Amazon should do better for the price it charges for audible books.

Great and easy reading for experienced professional economists

Alan Blinder has an easy prose that reads like a comforting novel for economists like myself who have a PhD and worked at the Fed, IMF, World Bank, Hedge Fund industry, and a G20 ministry of finance. No true surprises here for us but a great overarching view on monetary and fiscal policy in the United States in the last 60 years. A must read for young economists and professors teaching US economic history (and history of macroeconomic thought).

Great!

Not meant for a general audience.
Great for econ folks wanting to listen to an extensive lit review.

Excellent

This book is extremely well written, structured and comprehensive. I recommend for anyone interested in sharpening their mind around economics and politics.

Great Book, Performance Needed Editing

Overall, the book is a fantastic accounting of the monetary and fiscal policymaking decisions from 1961-2021. While Blinder provides his own political views at times, the book is still very even-handed. Further, this book is accessible and useful for academics, policy wonks, and the intellectually curious general public. This book should be required reading for any Fed watchers, deficit hawks, and policymakers--staff and principles.

On the performance side, there were multiple duplicative statements, which can be blamed on improper editing of the final recording. However, through happy coincidence, these mistaken reiterations actually provide a nice opportunity to drive the author's point home at times.

Good Overview, But Biased Toward Government Action

Blinder provides a thorough account of fiscal and monetary policy actions over time. This includes the expansive policies during the Great Recession and Great Lockdown. But there is a bias toward increasing government action when the history indicates government should have done less if anything.

Great breakdown of FED policies!

You can like it or not, but you can research it for yourself if you don’t understand what is easily explained in here. Many examples that are very easy to fact check. As a fanatic of economics I love listening to people that can point out to you what the real problem with tax cuts and no real plan will lead you to a higher inflationary period.

Great history of the financial world and how the government has to respond

Decision making at the highest levels of government on how leaders addressed the economic challenges the country faced.

Content Informative, Some Errors in Performance

First, the content and organization is great. One drawback there being when the historical period ends (right before the epic battle with inflation in 2022-2023), but nothing to do about that.

The delivery though leaves something to be desired. Certain sentences repeat. And the pronunciation is wrong for sometimes basic words and sometimes finance/economics words (LIBOR was one that made me wince).

Great book

Great history of the fed. Not to nerdy but filled with key points. Well done