Back from the Brink: The Greenspan Years

In this highly detailed, favorable account of Alan Greenspan's reign as Federal Reserve chairman from 1987 to the present, market analyst Beckner credits the doggedly determined central banker with devising policies that helped create today's environment of low inflation, low interest rates and low unemployment. Greenspan, a former jazz clarinetist, switched to economics, earned a doctorate, became a disciple of laissez-faire capitalist thinker Ayn Rand in the 1950s, then evolved into a mainstream conservative as chairman of Nixon's Council of Economic Advisers. Beckner, whose Market News Service reports on monetary policy are widely followed on Wall Street, provides inside details of the unflappable Fed chairman's running battle with the Bush White House. To the author, Greenspan is a heroic figure, a voice of sanity demanding a balanced federal budget, who has been unfairly blamed for causing the 1990-91 recession and the credit crunch, refuting critics who accuse Greenspan of a cozy relationship with President Clinton, Beckner maintains the Clinton administration has orchestrated a relentless campaign--equal parts intimidation, cooperation and propaganda--to manipulate Federal Reserve policy. Accessible to the financially uninitiated, this dynamic, seemingly day-to-day chronicle may be the ultimate Fed-watcher's guide. (Feb.)