1970-1985 (v. 2, Bk. 2) (A History of the Federal Reserve) Hardcover – 12 Feb. 2010

This is a long but very worthwhile read of Federal Reserve policy-making from 1950 until the end of Paul Volcker's Fed Chairmanship in 1987. We take it so much for granted nowadays that Central Banks just exist to 'set' interest rates that we forget it was not their original mission at all. Included in this period of the Fed's history is the 'monetary base control' episode of 1979-1982 that saw interest rates reach sky high levels, with extraordinary volatility. It's little wonder that longer-term rates took so long to come down again given the interest rate volatility of this particular period. Reading this volume is also a good reminder that the price of controlling US inflation wasn't just paid by the US domestic economy, but also in the form of the various debt crises that roiled the world subsequently (in Latin America, for example).