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The Courage to Act by Ben Bernanke
I really enjoyed learning from this book because it was a lot of, here’s what we did and now here is why we did that. I thought that it was a great time to read this book as many have been saying for the past few years that a market reset should be expected in the near future. Most of this book was very educational for me as I did not have much of a background about the way the Federal Reserve is run nor did I have much background information about the recession.
The first thing that I noted was the people that comprise the Federal Reserve Board. It was interesting to learn that they are all appointed by the president. It was very cool to learn that a new member is elected every other year, as the author shared, that is a good way to ensure that there is consistently fresh thinking as well as consistent positioning.
There are 7 members of the Federal Reserve Board that are appointed by the president and confirmed by the senate for standard 14 year terms. A new member is elected every other year.
Because the Fed oversees the banks in the United States, I liked hearing of the two main objectives for doing so. I think that the goals are good but am curious how much that regulation and supervision truly does to accomplish the intended objectives.
