Fed Up

An Insider's Take on Why the Federal Reserve Is Bad for America

By: Danielle DiMartino Booth

Narrated by: Danielle DiMartino Booth

Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins

Publisher's summary

An insider's unflinching exposé of the toxic culture within the Federal Reserve.

In the early 2000s, as a Wall Street escapee writing a financial column for the Dallas Morning News, Booth attracted attention for her bold criticism of the Fed's low interest rate policies and her cautionary warnings about the bubbly housing market. Nobody was more surprised than she when the folks at the Dallas Federal Reserve invited her aboard. Figuring she could have more of an impact on Fed policies from the inside, she accepted the call to duty and rose to be one of Dallas Fed president Richard Fisher's closest advisors.

To her dismay, the culture at the Fed - and its leadership - were not just ignorant of the brewing financial crisis but indifferent to its very possibility. They interpreted their job of keeping the economy going to mean keeping Wall Street afloat at the expense of the American taxpayer. But bad Fed policy created unaffordable housing, skewed incentives, rampant corporate financial engineering, stagnant wages, an exodus from the labor force, and skyrocketing student debt. Booth observed firsthand how the Fed abdicated its responsibility to the American people both before and after the financial crisis - and how nobody within the Fed seems to have learned or changed from the experience.

Today the Federal Reserve is still controlled by 1,000 PhD economists and run by an unelected West Coast radical with no direct business experience. The Fed continues to enable Congress to grow our nation's ballooning debt and avoid making hard choices, despite the high psychological and monetary costs. And our addiction to the "heroin" of low interest rates is pushing our economy toward yet another collapse.

This book is Booth's clarion call for a change in the way America's most powerful financial institution is run - before it's too late.

©2017 Danielle DiMartino Booth (P)2017 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“This view from the inside is not to be missed.” (A. Gary Shilling, president of A. Gary Shilling & Co., Inc.)

“Danielle DiMartino Booth has written an informed, thoughtful, eye-opening - and justifiably angry - memoir of her days at the Federal Reserve. A monetary broadside for our populist world.” (James Grant, publisher of Grant’s Interest Rate Observer)

“An outsider-turned-insider gives a gripping account of how false, but stubbornly held beliefs at the Fed helped create the global economic crisis as well as contribute to rising inequality in the United States. Brutally honest and engagingly written.... A mustread.” (William R. White, former economic adviser and head of the monetary and economic department at the Bank for International Settlements)

Good

Very great insight into the inner workings of Central banking, the politics that influence it and corporate power.

powerful story on how the Fed works in true life

Thanks Danielle for helping to understand how the Fed works, thanks Glenn for having her on.

great Insight on the Fed

really good book to give you an Insight of what the federally does for the economy. Must read for anyone that's interested in learning monetary policy

What a history lesson!!!

Told from a first hand account of a former Fed insider. Eye opening, entertaining, and should be required reading in schools.

Fed Up, required reading is what should be assigned to this book’s description.

Danielle DiMartino Booth provides a great work by bringing all this information to us in one concise book. As I read this book, all the emotions associated with the 2008 financial crisis come to mind. I was on active duty in the US Army at the time, and although the same age as Danielle, my path was military service for 25 years and not financial. I missed the effects of this great crisis unfolding as I was deployed to Iraq at the time. Not only that, but the only meter I had as a measuring stick was to watch my 401(k) disappear. It felt lime i sat there as it had its head cut off initially, and then arms and legs as I was left with half of my previous investments. This book should be a call to action and people should understand that nobody is going to care about your financial situation as much as you therefore, you need to become educated I would start with this book, thank you Danielle DiMartino booth for writing this book and making it available to all of us. Happy birthday to the twins who share my birthday, and to the rest of your family. May good things happen from here out for you and for our US economy. @paalvitre

A must read / listen for everyone.

This book should be required reading! I’ve listened to Fed Up several times. It’s unnerving how our current economy 2023 seems to be playing out like that of the GFC. Yellen was a problem then and even more so today. Thank you Danielle for laying it all out. Not only is the material excellent but Danielle does a fantastic job narrating her work.

Required Reading

This is a well-balanced look at the inside of the Federal reserve. It cuts through the noise and rhetoric of the existence and what needs to be done concerning the Federal Reserve. This book should be required reading it all schools and should first be consulted before coming to an opinion on things like audit the fed, end the Fed etc.

Great Job by Danielle

The arrogance of this FED and it's economist is shocking. A bunch of Phd's that have no clue about the current day to day market or trends.

A special thanks to fellow Texan Richard Fisher and the few other hawks who tried to steer the Fed in the right direction.

Great read and good job on her first book. I really enjoyed it.

loved it!!!

it is wonderful and long overdue. someone else besides Ron Paul explains in detail why the Fed Reserve does more harm than good.They are not the Bankers Bank so much as they are Wall Street's mistress.

A Peek Behind the Curtain

In this book DDB explains in great detail the structure and function of the secretive and much protected Federal Reserve. She talks about its relationship w Congress and how they both use each other in their abuse of taxpayers. She explains how Congress hides behind the Fed for its own failures and just how political the Fed really is. In the end she offers great solutions on cutting the FR down to size by condensing regional banks, etc. I also like how personal a story it was from beginning to end. A very enlightening read.