• The Lords of Easy Money

  • How the Federal Reserve Broke the American Economy
  • By: Christopher Leonard
  • Narrated by: Jacques Roy
  • Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (848 ratings)

Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
The Lords of Easy Money  By  cover art

The Lords of Easy Money

By: Christopher Leonard
Narrated by: Jacques Roy
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $18.74

Buy for $18.74

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

The New York Times bestseller from business journalist Christopher Leonard infiltrates one of America’s most mysterious institutions—the Federal Reserve—to show how its policies spearheaded by Chairman Jerome Powell over the past ten years have accelerated income inequality and put our country’s economic stability at risk.

If you asked most people what forces led to today’s unprecedented income inequality and financial crashes, no one would say the Federal Reserve. For most of its history, the Fed has enjoyed the fawning adoration of the press. When the economy grew, it was credited to the Fed. When the economy imploded in 2008, the Fed got credit for rescuing us.

But here, for the first time, is the inside story of how the Fed has reshaped the American economy for the worse. It all started on November 3, 2010, when the Fed began a radical intervention called quantitative easing. In just a few short years, the Fed more than quadrupled the money supply with one goal: to encourage banks and other investors to extend more risky debt. Leaders at the Fed knew that they were undertaking a bold experiment that would produce few real jobs, with long-term risks that were hard to measure. But the Fed proceeded anyway…and then found itself trapped. Once it printed all that money, there was no way to withdraw it from circulation. The Fed tried several times, only to see the market start to crash, at which point the Fed turned the money spigot back on. That’s what it did when COVID hit, printing 300 years’ worth of money in a few short months.

Which brings us to now: Ten years on, the gap between the rich and poor has grown dramatically, inflation is raging, and the stock market is driven by boom, busts, and bailouts. Middle-class Americans seem stuck in a stage of permanent stagnation, with wage gains wiped out by high prices even as they remain buried under credit card debt, car loan debt, and student debt. Meanwhile, the “too big to fail” banks remain bigger and more powerful than ever while the richest Americans enjoy the gains of a hyper-charged financial system.

The Lords of Easy Money “skillfully” (The Wall Street Journal) tells the “fascinating” (The New York Times) tale of how quantitative easing is imperiling the American economy through the story of the one man who tried to warn us. This is the first inside story of how we really got here—and why our economy rests on such unstable ground.

©2022 Christopher Leonard. All rights reserved. (P)2022 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

What listeners say about The Lords of Easy Money

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    654
  • 4 Stars
    133
  • 3 Stars
    34
  • 2 Stars
    14
  • 1 Stars
    13
Performance
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    608
  • 4 Stars
    98
  • 3 Stars
    18
  • 2 Stars
    3
  • 1 Stars
    5
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    570
  • 4 Stars
    105
  • 3 Stars
    29
  • 2 Stars
    19
  • 1 Stars
    11

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Pointless book

The Fed printed too much money. That’s not good. No proposals or potential solutions. Republicans bad - Democrats good. I just saved you hours of reading this pointless book.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

16 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Nothing actionable.

It’s an interesting story if you like financial current events and recent history. However, there is nothing actionable. This will not help with your investments. The author is an anti-Trumper and an establishment guy. He seems shocked that the easy money policies of the Fed for decades has caused a widening of the inequality gap, yet he defines Fed credit like Ron Paul as cranks.

I wanted to quit the book many times, but I kept going as it seemed that the author was almost about to “get it”, but he never does.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

16 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Thrilling, Terrifying, Thought-Provoking

The book is almost told like a spy thriller novel. Mr. Leonard does a great job of weaving interesting facts, figures and explanations in a way that is both engaging to listen to and horrifying in it's scope.

Mr. Leonard does a fantastic job of conveying difficult terms and processes such as corporate debt packaging and quantitative easing with a flair but also putting it in easy to understand language. Very little FED speak.

I highly recommend anyone who is interested in discovering one of the main drivers of economic problems and policy read/listen to this book.

Hold on, grab a snack, and be ready to ride the search for yeild curve!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

complex topics made understandable

all excellent explanation of topics such as the repo market. he shows the appropriate amount of sympathy for central bankers who are given difficult choices, as well as criticism for their choices which disproportionately benefit the rich.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Eye opener and chilling

This is the most important, up to date, book of recent behind the scene explanation of what is going on in the most powerful , secretive and influential agency in the world.

It is an eye opener and a monumental warning sign to the public to become less greedy and more fearful.


This book is THE "red pill" for the public and retail investors that underestimate, sometimes unaware of, the powerfull and destructive forces that will change the life of the generations to come.

I wish it was just a dystopian fiction.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Meh….

Chapter 16 will age VERY poorly. Although recommended by war room, the book is too left leaning and written to enjoy. It is a good history, however, so I’ll still give two stars.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Long

Seems like this story could have been told in less time and fewer words. Then at one point makes disparaging comments about the voter outrage over the BS election of 2020. Calls questions about the election “The Big Lie”, which is the lie. 100,000 vote drops of 100,000 to zero does not happen, ever. How these people have no curiosity is absurd. Basically, we’re screwed and there are no serious people in the book writing and news reporting class. I want to know what to do to be properly prepared and have proper asset allocation so when the excrement hits the fan I’m good. I listened to this while driving and while walking and playing golf. There has got to be a way to convey this info in less time with less talk about a cup of coffee somewhere. One round of golf, 4 hours ought to be enough time to tell any story.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Was great - the Political bias

Enjoyed the book and the perspective greatly but god I wish the liberal dribble was minimized at the closing of the book was a horrid display of virtue signaling silliness… he literally goes into detail about wearing two masks and other things off topic about the “capital incident” (have to carefully phrase that so the review is even visible) … maybe it was simply him trying to paint a picture of how things were but it’s hard to say for sure. Content wise I enjoyed the book and it was informative. I now have to more carefully research some of the things he spoke about to see if there was source bias to make sure this a more moderate view or a leftist view of things. (I’m not a conservative I’m a libertarian… I’m mostly annoyed he did a good job in so many areas keeping his political bias to himself and it bleed through loudly in a few parts towards the end and almost ruined the book for me, I can imagine if you actually liked trump it would totally ruin the book for you when there is a decent amount of value to what he has to bring to light, I can look past that others likely won’t)

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Oversold revelation but elitist as the Fed itself

This book was praised at Bannon's Warroom and its title makes it seem like a part of the major criticism of the Fed. I expected to have someone explain it all to me. But the book strikes me as elitist. It's trying to suck up to Fed economist and salon liberals, the very people who have propped up the system that - in the authors own words - wrecked the economy. A lot of time is spent on personal stories and too little on explaining mechanisms. The author seems to make it a point to deride the Tea Party movement, attack Glenn Beck with zest, and sneer about "conspiracy theories" repeatedly. But in each case, he doesn't do as much as explain how his superior elite understanding is different from what the only people who spoke about the Fed ruining the economy were saying. I am a scientist and engineer, I don't want to hear 7 hours (at 1.4x speed) of biography and handwaving. All these elitists claiming to have this refined understanding of the Fed are never actually explaining anything so it would make sense. It's very clear that money creation from nothing is causing inflation and asset bubbles, and essentially give free money to their plutocratic buddies who then make the common man work hard to gain a miserly penny from this loot. All non libtards get that. So when the author essentially says the same thing, but unloads his derisive drivel on us, without setting the record straight, what's the purpose of this book? I don't care about the decoration of Carlisle offices or some bigwig wearing a white tie!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Just wow.

Hard to comprehend the level of criminality on display from the FED and the disasters it’s caused. So reckless and so futile. This book lays it all out. There’s no way out for the FED and this epic everything bubble.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful