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The Fed Unbound

Central Banking in a Time of Crisis

Author Lev Menand
Read by Mark Deakins
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On sale May 10, 2022 | 3 Hours and 52 Minutes | 9780593614792

Do the Fed’s efforts to stabilize the economy worsen inequality?

The Federal Reserve, the U.S. central bank, was built for a monetary system composed primarily of investor-owned, government-chartered banks. But over the years, the erosion of banking law and the rise of alternative forms of money created outside of the banking system have pushed the Fed to take on more and more responsibilities to keep the economy out of recession, as it did during the 2008 crisis, and again during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic, when it created $3 trillion to stop another financial panic.

Legal scholar and former Treasury official Lev Menand explains how the Fed did this, and argues that it is time to cure the disease that has plagued the American economy for decades, and not just rely on the Fed to treat its symptoms. The Fed Unbound is an urgent appeal to Congress to reform the U.S. economic and financial infrastructure.
Lev Menand is an associate professor of law at Columbia Law School. He served as senior advisor to the Deputy Secretary of the Treasury from 2015–2016 and senior advisor to the Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions from 2014–2015. He has also worked as an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in the Bank’s Supervision Group. He lives in New York City.

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Do the Fed’s efforts to stabilize the economy worsen inequality?

The Federal Reserve, the U.S. central bank, was built for a monetary system composed primarily of investor-owned, government-chartered banks. But over the years, the erosion of banking law and the rise of alternative forms of money created outside of the banking system have pushed the Fed to take on more and more responsibilities to keep the economy out of recession, as it did during the 2008 crisis, and again during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic, when it created $3 trillion to stop another financial panic.

Legal scholar and former Treasury official Lev Menand explains how the Fed did this, and argues that it is time to cure the disease that has plagued the American economy for decades, and not just rely on the Fed to treat its symptoms. The Fed Unbound is an urgent appeal to Congress to reform the U.S. economic and financial infrastructure.

Author

Lev Menand is an associate professor of law at Columbia Law School. He served as senior advisor to the Deputy Secretary of the Treasury from 2015–2016 and senior advisor to the Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions from 2014–2015. He has also worked as an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in the Bank’s Supervision Group. He lives in New York City.

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