maes·tro
    n., pl. maes·tros or maes·tri (-tr).
    A master in an art, especially a composer, conductor, or music teacher.
            -Dictionary.com

If I was right in my review of Agenda, and Bob Woodward really is embarked on a clandestine conservative project to demonstrate that government and human affairs are fundamentally unmanageable, then this book is the capstone on that project, which he has now successfully completed.  If you were to poll the American public, New York's financial movers and shakers, Washington's pols and pundits, and Silicon Valley's technocrats, and ask them all who is the single most successful government official of all time, perhaps as many as half of the respondents would name Alan Greenspan.  Unless this current economic slowdown turns into a fairly sharp and retracted recession, which is extraordinarily unlikely, Greenspan's tenure as Chairman of the Federal Reserve will have coincided with the greatest period of economic expansion in the history of humankind.  If this economy has even managed to insulate Bill Clinton from the consequences of all of his criminal behavior for eight years, even though no one thinks he had anything to do with the economy's performance, just imagine what it has done for the reputation of Greenspan, a figure of some moral rectitude, who actually gets credit for it.  Yet what is the secret that this extremely flattering portrait gradually reveals ? : Greenspan neither has any idea what is truly going on with even the most fundamental trends in the economy, nor does he pretend to.

That is the most important message conveyed by this book, that Greenspan, almost universally perceived as the ubergenius who has guided the current economic expansion, has been more or less flailing for his entire term, and no one is more aware of it than he.  Like all of Woodward's books, this one excels at giving the reader a rare inside look at the making of policy.  what will come as a shock to most people, particularly to readers of William Greider's book Secrets of the Temple, is how fundamentally chaotic that process really is.  Greider and most Fed critics contend that the Federal Reserve is an all powerful, unaccountable institution which manipulates the economy in order to serve the interests of banks and bond holders (i.e., the rich) at the expense of borrowers (i.e. , the middle class).  Greenspan and his fellow Fed members do certainly emerge as zealous guardians against inflation--particularly the Chairman himself who is from the generation of leaders who quite helplessly fought against the explosive post-Vietnam inflation of the 1970s--but throughout the book they are fighting a monster who stubbornly refuses to rear his ugly head.

Much of modern economics is based around the near religious belief in the concept of the non-accelerating inflation rate of unemployment (NAIRU), which essentially holds that there is a limit below which unemployment can not fall without triggering inflation rises.  The reasons for this are fairly self-evident; at some point the competition between employers for new workers must put pressure on wages.  However, during this prolonged expansion unemployment has been driven far below the accepted NAIRU, once thought to be over 6%, and has stayed low without setting off the predicted inflationary effects.  Of course, it might be possible to temporarily hide increases in labor costs, if companies ate into their own profit margins, but profits have grown during this period also.  This is theoretically impossible and neither Greenspan, nor any of his peers, could figure out what was happening.  Finally, and I mean finally, after a period of years, Greenspan determined that their statistics were undermeasuring enormous productivity increases, driven by technology, which were alleviating inflation pressure.

Meanwhile, there were several other phenomena which they either never comprehended or Woodward didn't, but which seem readily amenable to at least partial explanation.  Three of the tasks that Greenspan and the Fed pursued over this period were to return the Federal government to balanced budgets, to tamp down the skyrocketing stock market, and to slow the rapid growth of the US economy.  They failed utterly at all three : why ?

The Budget

Many would protest that they succeeded here, but a government that is running an $800 billion surplus, as ours is projected to do soon, is being mismanaged just as badly as one which is running enormous deficits.  What happened here ?

The simple fact is that Greenspan and the rest of the green eyeshade crew got so caught up in the microeconomics of budget numbers that they failed to look at the changing global landscape.  It is obviously the case that America ended the Cold War running large deficits and they were exacerbated by the inevitable industrial restructuring as the economy changed from a wartime to a peacetime posture.  But the other obvious fact, obvious at the time had anyone cared to think about it, was that there was about to be a titanic peace dividend.  First, defense spending has plunged, to the point where
we now budget roughly the same percentage of money for defense as we did prior to Pearl Harbor.  By itself, this savings would probably have resulted in balanced budgets.  Second, America had basically been pursuing a "guns & butter" policy since the time of JFK. In exchange for the public's acquiescence in Cold War adventurism, the government had vastly expanded domestic spending,  Additionally, wartime imperatives had given labor a whiphand, allowing them to push for ever higher wages as a cost of producing the weaponry with which to confront the Soviets.  The end of the Cold War made it possible to confront the public and labor, with the result that domestic spending and industrial wages both stopped increasing at their prior rates.  Finally, the defeat of the Soviets freed something like a quarter of the world's population from communism and turned them into consumers, hungry for our goods.  The $500 billion deficit package that Bill Clinton and the Democrats passed in 1993, and George Bush's earlier package, pale in comparison to these enormous structural changes in the US and world economies.  If anything, it is likely that the deficit plans acted as an unnecessary brake on US postwar economic growth and delayed the point at which the budget went into balance.

The Market Boom

This is still just a theory and I suppose it will eventually be put to the test (perhaps in the NASDAQ over the coming year), but I wonder whether 401k'shaven't made it nearly impossible to drive down stock prices for an extended period.  Over 70 million Americans now own stocks in some form, presumably mostly through 401k plans.  Total investment in 401k's is over $1 Trillion and more goes in every two weeks.  Every paycheck Americans pump money into the market.  Sure, at times, like this past January, they tend to sit on the sidelines by putting it mostly in money markets, but they (we) are just waiting for an opportune moment to pump it into stocks.  The latest slide in the NASDAQ happens to have coincided with a slowdown in overall economic growth, but let the tax cuts pass or the Fed start cutting rates, and the transfer of money from those funds into the market will get those prices headed back up again.   And even during this stretch of relatively bad news, the Dow has stayed well over 10,000.  It appears at least a possibility that 401k's, with the thirty or forty year perspective that they necessarily force upon investors, have created a broadbased multitude of stockholders and buyers who are less susceptible to normal fluctuations in the market and who will not be easily influenced by the Fed's attempts to dampen enthusiasm.

Rapid Growth

This is actually a hidden, but unnecessary, victory for the Fed.  The combination of artificially high interest rates and the aforementioned debt reduction packages have created an environment where the American people are extremely overtaxed and borrowing costs are much too high.  This has slowed the economy, but the countervailing factors are so overwhelming positive that it has still experienced robust growth.

Overtaxation is readily apparent from the surpluses we are running and which will skyrocket in coming years.  Interest rates are a little more subtle, but not much.  What is the one thing that we were always told about why we had to reduce the deficit ?  That reducing government competition for loan money would free up more for private borrowers and result in lower rates.  What has happened over the period that the US government went from deficits in the hundreds of billions to surpluses in the hundreds of billions ?  Rates have gone up.

In fact, remarkable as it may seem to we older folks who experienced rates up to and over 20% in the late 70's and early 80's, today's rates may be the highest interest rates in our history.  That is, they are the highest real interest rates (Interest rate minus inflation = real interest rate).  Inflation after all has completely nonexistent for the past several years.  Since 1991 we've been measuring inflation at or under 3%.  That's low enough, but then add in the fact that Greenspan himself has testified before Congress that the inflation measure we use is hopelessly antiquated and overestimates inflation by at least 1%.  For instance, the number for January 2001 was shockingly high (averaging out to a 6% yearly rate), but the rise was mostly the result of a large tax increase on tobacco products and further hikes in energy costs.  The energy component is troublesome, though likely temporary, but the cigarette costs are insane.  In the first place, why not measure the price of crack and arsenic while we're at it ?  There is simply nothing about cigarettes that makes them the kind of vital item that should be in the market basket used to measure inflation.  Secondly, the price rise reflects nothing more than an arbitrary government action.  There is no intrinsic sign that prices for goods may be increasing generally.  So let's ignore that number and take a look at the 3% number that's been more common for the past decade.  Then we'll lop off the 1% that Greenspan identified.  So we're at about 2%.  Meanwhile, interest rates have been about 6%.  So real interest rates are roughly 4%, or at least 3%.  This may not qualify as usury, but it is outrageous in historical terms.

The real strength of the global economy is even more apparent when you consider that the Fed probably has interest rates about two full points too high now.  The end of Communism and decline of socialism, the move towards international free trade, the technology revolution, and the transformation of the American retirement system into a private (401k) investment-based system have combined to create a momentum which even unwise Fed policy hasn't been able to derail.  These massive trends also make it especially amusing to read Woodward's descriptions of internecine struggles in the Fed over whether to raise or drop rates by quarters of percentage points.  Ultimately you really have to conclude that the Fed's effect is mostly felt in the psychological realm.  It is a real effect, but it is hardly the type of technocratic fine tuning that so many imagine them to be involved in.

With all of that, it appears that Greenspan understands, better than anyone, how little even he knows.  In fact, the most common refrain from him over the course of the book is : we just don't know.  The Fed meetings where rates are set are especially entertaining because the hawks and doves flip flop from one to the next, folks go in planning to push for one action and end up voting for another, half the time no one but Greenspan knows what they decided, and he (by long-standing Fed tradition) has to be on the winning side, so, except on the rare occasion when he really pressures his colleagues, he goes along with the consensus.  The title of the book, Maestro, is surely intended to be just as tongue-in-cheek as were the titles of Woodward's past few books--The Agenda, The Choice, The Commanders--because Greenspan, far from resembling a conductor or composer in complete control of an orchestra, more closely resembles a jazz musician in the midst of a freestyle jam, technically skilled and able to please the audience, but essentially functioning without a score.  His role, and he fills it brilliantly, is to bring some semblance of harmony out of chaos.

At one point, in testimony before Congress, Greenspan was asked about the possibility of creating an international bank regulator; his reply speaks volumes :

    I would be very concerned if we were looking at some major superregulator.  Superregulators tend
    to overregulate and make unbelievable mistakes.

    I would suspect that I would know most of the people who would be in charge of making the types
    of judgments that would be required for that, and I would tell you that they don't have a clue as to
    what to do.  I would much prefer to allow very complex market forces to tell us.

This is, of course, a self description; who else has the gravitas and reputation that would be required of such a global regulator ?  In it he reveals the depth of humility which makes him a singular figure and demonstrates that he is deserving of all the accolades he receives, though for a very different reason than he receives them.  Where people are mesmerized by his track record of success, his intellect and the micromanaging they believe he has engaged in, Greenspan understands that the markets know more than he can ever hope to understand, and his role is to interfere with markets as little as possible and be naught but a cautious steward.

(Reviewed:28-Feb-01)

Grade: (B+)

Bob Woodward Links:

    -REVIEW: of Bush at War By Bob Woodward (Eric Alterman, American Prospect)
    -REVIEW: of Bush at War By Bob Woodward (James Rubin, NY Observer)
    -REVIEW: of Bush at War By Bob Woodward (John Homans, New York)
    -REVIEW: of Bush at War By Bob Woodward (Edward N. Luttwak, LA Times)

Book-related and General Links:
    -EXCERPT : Chapter One of Maestro by Bob Woodward
    -EXCERPT: Chapter One of The Choice
    -INTERVIEW : Bob Woodward on Greenspan  (The Motley Fool, David Gardner and Tom Gardner, January 18, 2001)
    -CHAT : Bob Woodward on the Federal Reserve (Washington Post, January 2001)
    -CHAT : with Bob Woodward : Watergate Reporter’s New Subject is Alan Greenspan (ABC News, Nov. 2000)
    -BOOKNOTES: Author: Bob Woodward Title: The Commanders Air Date: June 23, 1991(CSPAN)
    -INTERVIEW: Forum With Bob Woodward 25th Anniversary of Watergate Break-In (WashingtonPost.com)
    -INTERVIEW: Interview with Bob Woodward  (July 29, 1996, Why America Hates the Press, PBS)
    -INTERVIEWS: News Writing with Bob Woodward (Annenberg/CPB Project)
    -INTERVIEW: Inside Presidential Scandals   Good Morning America (Charles Gibson, ABC News)
    -ARCHIVES: (NY Review of Books)
    -ARCHIVE: Bob Woodward (Salon.com Directory)
    -ARCHIVE: Bob Woodward and the Temple of Facts (Slate.com)
    -PROFILE: Heroism Project/ 1970s/ Woodward & Bernstein
    -PROFILE: Bob Woodward, The Washington Post And His Many Books  (ALEX S. JONES, NY Times)
    -PROFILE: Bob Woodward (Lisa Pease, Probe Magazine)
    -ARCHIVES: "watergate" (NY Review of Books)
    -Watergate.com
    -ESSAY : Creative Reporting : Learning to appreciate press briefings. (Michael Ledeen, October 21, 2001, National Review)
    -ESSAY: Bob Woodward, Sacred Cow ( L. Brent Bozell III,  June 24, 1999, Media Research)
    -ESSAY: Deep Throat : An Institutional Analysis   (James Mann, The Atlantic)
    -ESSAY:  Ideas & Trends; When Fact Is Treated as Fiction  (JAMES ATLAS, NY Times Book Review)
    -ESSAY: Journal; The Other Agenda  (FRANK RICH, NY Times)
    -ESSAY: Can the President Think?  The chaos and paralysis of the Clinton presidency reflect the chaos and paralysis of Bill Clinton's mind--and he is not going to change. (Edith Efron, Reason)
    -REVIEW : of Maestro (James K. Glassman, Weekly Standard)
    -REVIEW : of Maestro by Bob Woodward and Greenspan by Justin Martin (Robert Kuttner, NY Times Book Review)
    -REVIEW : of Maestro (William Greider, The Nation)
    -REVIEW : of Maestro (James K. Galbraith, The American Prospect)
    -REVIEW : of Maestro (Tom Schlesinger, Financial Markets Center)
    -REVIEW : of Maestro (Damien Cave, Salon)
    -REVIEW : of Maestro, By Bob Woodward (Steve Weinberg, Denver Post)
    -REVIEW : of Maestro by Bob Woodward (John W. Sloan, Houston Chronicle)
    -REVIEW : of Maestro (Repps Hudson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
    -REVIEW : of Maestro (Richard Pachter, Knight Ridder Newspapers)
    -REVIEW : of Maestro (Mike Littwin, Rocky Mountain News)
    -REVIEW : of MAESTRO: GREENSPAN'S FED AND THE AMERICAN  BOOM By Bob Woodward (Rich Miller , Business Week)
    -REVIEW: of THE AGENDA Inside the Clinton White House. By Bob Woodward (Andrew Sullivan, NY Times Book Review)
    -REVIEW: of The Agenda Inside the Clinton White House By Bob Woodward (Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, NY Times)
    -REVIEW: Sep 19, 1996 Joan Didion: The Deferential Spirit, NY Review of Books
       The Choice by Bob Woodward
       OTHER BOOKS DISCUSSED IN THIS ARTICLE
       The Agenda: Inside the Clinton White House by Bob Woodward
       The Commanders by Bob Woodward
       Veil: The Secret Wars of the CIA 1981-1987 by Bob Woodward
       Wired: The Short Life and Fast Times of John Belushi by Bob Woodward
       The Brethren by Bob Woodward and Scott Armstrong
    -REVIEW: of SHADOW Five Presidents and the Legacy of Watergate. By Bob Woodward (Michael Lind, NY Times Book Review)
    -REVIEW: of Shadow by Bob Woodward (James Nuechterlein, Commentary)
    -REVIEW: of Shadow REWIND:  How Woodward Goes Wayward  In his latest best-seller, Bob Woodward doesn't let pesky facts or contradictory evidence get in the way of the story (Steven Brill, Brill's Content)
    -REVIEW: of Shadow Successors ignored  Watergate lessons :  Bob Woodward traces rot of modern U.S. presidency back to Nixon (YVONNE CRITTENDEN, Toronto Sun)
    -REVIEW: Lars-Erik Nelson: Undemocratic Vistas, NY Review of Books
       The Corruption of American Politics: What Went Wrong and Why by Elizabeth Drew
       Shadow: Five Presidents and the Legacy of Watergate by Bob Woodward
    -REVIEW: of  THE CHOICE By Bob Woodward  (1996)(MICHIKO KAKUTANI, NY Times)
    -REVIEW: of THE CHOICE By Bob Woodward (Michael Lewis, NY Times Book Review)
    -REVIEW: of The Choice by Bob Woodward Suiting Up for the Race (David J. Garrow , The Washington Post)
    -REVIEW: of The Choice (Jonathan Alter, Salate)
    -REVIEW: Mark Danner: Slouching Toward Dayton, NY Review of Books
       To End a War by Richard Holbrooke
       Sarajevo Daily: A City and Its Newspaper Under Siege by Tom Gjelten
       The Choice: How Clinton Won by Bob Woodward
    -REVIEW: of THE MAN WHO WOULD BE PRESIDENT Dan Quayle. By David S. Broder and Bob Woodward (1992)(James K. Glassman, NY Times Book Review)
    -REVIEW : The man who Would be President: Dan Quayle by Bob Woodward and David Broder (William Boot, Columbia Journalism Review)
    -REVIEW: of THE COMMANDERS By Bob Woodward (Sidney Blumenthal, NY Times Book Review)
    -REVIEW: of The Commanders By Bob Woodward (Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, NY Times)
    -REVIEW: of The Commanders (Deborah Shapley, Bulletin of Atomic Scientists)
    -REVIEW: of VEIL The Secret Wars of the CIA 1981-1987. By Bob Woodward (1987)(David C. Martin, NY Times Book Review)
    -REVIEW: of VEIL: The Secret Wars of the CIA 1981-1987. By Bob Woodward (Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, NY Times)
    -REVIEW: of Wired: The Short Life and Fast Times of John Belushi. By Bob Woodward (1984)(Anatole Broyard, NY Times)
    -REVIEW: of Deep Truths : The Lives of Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward by Adrian Havill (Steve Weinberg, Columbia Journalism Review)
 

BUSH AT WAR:
    -EXCERPTS: 'BUSH AT WAR' | Confronting Iraq: A Struggle for the President's Heart and Mind : Powell Journeyed From Isolation to Winning the Argument on Iraq (Bob Woodward, November 17, 2002, Washington Post)
    -EXCERPT: Doubts and Debate Before Victory Over Taliban: Bush Demanded Advisers Be Patient (Bob Woodward, November 18, 2002, Washington Post)
    -EXCERPT: CIA Led Way With Cash Handouts (Bob Woodward, November 18, 2002, Washington Post)
    -ESSAY: A Course of 'Confident Action': Bush Says Other Countries Will Follow Assertive U.S. in War on Terrorism (Bob Woodward, November 19, 2002, Washington Post)
    -ESSAY: Iraq on His Mind: At Home in Texas, Bush Ponders New Risks (Bob Woodward, November 19, 2002, Washington Post)
    -ESSAY: Bush Opens Up to Capital's Most Powerful Man (Andrew Ferguson, Nov. 19, 2002, Bloomberg)
    -REVIEW: of Bush at War by Bob Woodward (Fouad Ajami, Washington Post)

GREENSPAN (1926-) :
    -Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve
    -SPEECH : Remarks by Chairman Alan Greenspan (80th Anniversary Awards Dinner of The Conference Board, New York, New York October 16, 1996)
    -SPEECH : Remarks by Chairman Alan Greenspan (15th Anniversary Conference of the Center for Economic Policy Research at Stanford  University, Stanford, California  September 5, 1997)
    -EXCERPT : Chapter One of Maestro by Bob Woodward
    -EXCERPT : First Chapter of Greenspan : The Man Behind the Money by Justin Martin
    -ARCHIVES : "greenspan" (NY Review of Books)
    -ARCHIVES : "alan greenspan" (Find Articles)
    -ARCHIVES : Salon Directory | Alan Greenspan (Salon)
    -ESSAY : The Greenspan Mystique : How much credit does the Fed chairman deserve? (James K. Glassman, Weekly Standard)
    -ESSAY : Has the maestro missed a beat? (George Hager and Dina Temple-Raston, USA TODAY)
    -ESSAY : The price is right: deflation has a bad name. But when productivity is increasing, prices should be allowed to fall (George Selgin, National Review, March 23, 1998)
    -REVIEW : of Maestro by Bob Woodward and Greenspan by Justin Martin (Robert Kuttner, NY Times Book Review)
    -REVIEW : of THE GREENSPAN EFFECT Words That Move the World's Markets. By David B. Sicilia and Jeffrey L. Cruikshank (Floyd Norris, NY Times Book Review, January 30, 2000)

GENERAL:
    -ESSAY: Why Inflation Figures Are . . . Inflated: The consumer price index (CPI) is one of the most important statistics the government produces. It's also one of the most misleading, badly overstating annual cost-of-living increases. Hoover fellow Michael J. Boskin, who chaired the U.S. Congressional Advisory Commission on the Consumer Price Index, explains why. (Hoover Digest, Spring 1997)
    -Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve
    -Alan Greenspan Bio (ABC.news)
    -Unofficial Alan Greenspan Fan Club (getexuberant.com)
    -Historical Budget Data (Congressional Budget Office)
    -Economic Statistics Briefing Room (White House)
    -Office of Management and Budget
    -Economic Policy Institute : The mission of the Economic Policy Institute is to provide high-quality research and educational resources in order to promote a prosperous, fair, and sustainable economy
    -Financial Markets Center : independent, nonprofit institute that provides research and educational resources to grassroots groups, unions, policymakers and journalists interested in the Federal Reserve System and financial markets
    -ARCHIVES : "federal reserve" (NY Review of Books)
    -ESSAY : The Joy of Debt : The last thing we should want is a U.S. Treasury flush with cash (James K. Glassman, Weekly Standard)
    -ESSAY : Surplus to America's economic requirements  (Amity Shlaes, Town Hall)
    -ESSAY : Lowballing the Surplus : Americans should know just how much they are overpaying the government. (Wall Street Journal)
    -ESSAY : Fed Street Cred Dead? (Robert Wright, Slate, March 28, 2001
    -ESSAY : Crash or Boom? : On the Future of the New Economy  (Irwin M. Stelzer, Commentary)
    -ESSAY : The NAIRU Debate: Can the US Economy Grow Above 2.5% and Unemployment Fall Below 5% Without Causing an Increase in Inflation ? (Nouriel Roubini, Stern School of Business, New York University, 1998)
    -ESSAY :  Stable prices and fast growth: just say no (Paul Krugman 1996)
    -ESSAY : Our NAIRU Limit : The Governing Myth of Economic Policy (Robert Eisner, The American Prospect, 1995)
    -ESSAY : The Crusade That's Killing Prosperity (Lester C. Thurow, The American Prospect, 1996)
    -ESSAY : The Rise of Market Populism: America's New Secular Religion It offers a blatant apologia for economic inequality--but few question the faith. (Thomas Frank, The Nation)
    -REVIEW : Aug 10, 2000 Jeff Madrick: All Too Human, NY Review of Books
               Irrational Exuberance by Robert J. Shiller
               A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton G. Malkiel
               Stocks for the Long Run by Jeremy J. Siegel
               Dow 36,000 by James K. Glassman and Kevin A. Hassett
               Famous First Bubbles by Peter M. Garber
               Devil Take the Hindmost: A History of Financial Speculation by
               Edward Chancellor
               Social Security: The Phony Crisis by Dean Baker and Mark Weisbrot
               On Money and Markets: A Wall Street Memoir by Henry Kaufman
    -REVIEW : Oct 7, 1999 Roger Alcaly: He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands, NY Review of Books
               Inflation, Unemployment, and Monetary Policy by Robert M. Solow,
               John B. Taylor, The Alvin Hansen Symposium on Public Policy, and
               edited and with an introduction by Benjamin M. Friedman
               Central Banking in Theory and Practice by Alan S. Blinder
    -REVIEW : Sep 23, 1999 Jeff Madrick: How New Is the New Economy?, NY Review of Books
               Books and research papers discussed in this article
               Turbulence in the World Economy by Robert Brenner
               Myths of Rich & Poor: Why We’re Better Off Than We Think by W.
               Michael Cox and Richard Alm
               “Foundations of the Goldilocks Economy: Supply Shocks and the
               Time-Varying Nairu” by Robert J. Gordon
               “The High Pressure U.S. Labor Market of the 1990s” by Alan Kreuger
               and Lawrence Katz
               The New Dollars and Dreams: Americans Incomes and Economic
               Change by Frank Levy
               “Computers and Aggregate Economic Growth” by Daniel E. Siche
               “Economic Statistics, the New Economy, and the Productivity
               Slowdown” by Jack E. Triplett
               The Emerging Digital Economy by Department of Commerce
    -REVIEW : Jun 25, 1998 Roger E. Alcaly: How to Think About the Stock Market, NY Review of Books
               BOOKS REFERRED TO IN THIS ARTICLE
               Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk by Peter L. Bernstein
               It Was a Very Good Year: Extraordinary Moments in Stock Market History by Martin S. Fridson
               Security Analysis: The Classic 1934 Edition by Benjamin Graham and David Dodd
               A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton G. Malkiel and sixth edition
              What Works on Wall Street by James P. O’Shaughnessy and revised edition
              Stocks for the Long Run: The Definitive Guide to Financial Market
               Returns and Long-Term Investment Strategies by Jeremy J. Siegel
               Advances in Behavioral Finance edited by Richard H. Thaler
               Securities Markets in the 1980s, Volume I: The New Regime, 1979-1984
               by Barrie A. Wigmore
               The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham
    -REVIEW : Mar 6, 1997 Jeff Madrick: The Cost of Living: A New Myth, NY Review of Books
               Toward a More Accurate Measure of the Cost of Living Final Report to
               the Senate Finance Committee from the Advisory Commission to Study
               the Consumer Price Index
               Bias in the Consumer Price Index: What is the Evidence? by Brent R.
               Moulton and Journal of Economic Perspectives
               American Standards of Living, 1918-1988 by Clair Brown
               Getting Prices Right: A Methodologically Consistent Consumer Price
               Index, 1953-94 by Dean Baker
    -ESSAY : Confessions Of a Onetime Price Tamer (Paul Volcker)(NY Times, June 8, 1992)
    -REVIEW : of CHANGING FORTUNES The World's Money and the Threat to American Leadership. By Paul A. Volcker and Toyoo Gyohten (1992) (Benjamin J. Cohen, NY Times Book Review)
    -REVIEW : of SECRETS OF THE TEMPLE: How the Federal Reserve Runs the Country. By William Greider (1988) (Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, NY Times)
    -REVIEW : of SECRETS OF THE TEMPLE: How the Federal Reserve Runs the Country. By William Greider (1988) (Adam Smith, NY Times Book Review)
    -REVIEW : of LEADERSHIP AT THE FED By Donald F. Kettl (1986) (Lawrence A. Veit, NY Times Book Review)
    -REVIEW : of THE FEDERAL RESERVE An Intentional Mystery. By Thibaut de Saint Phalle (1985) (Lawrence A. Veit, NY Times Book Review)
    -REVIEW : of THE NATIONAL DEBT By Lawrence Malkin (1987)(Alfred Balk, NY Times Book Review)
    -REVIEW : of IRRATIONAL EXUBERANCE By Robert J. Shiller (Louis Uchitelle, NY Times Book Review)
    -REVIEW : of THE LEXUS AND THE OLIVE TREE By Thomas L. Friedman (Richard Eder, NY Times)
    -REVIEW : of OTHER PEOPLE'S MONEY The Inside Story of the S&L Mess. By Paul Zane Pilzer with Robert Deitz (1989) (Anthony Solomon, NY Times Book Review)
    -REVIEW : of FULL FAITH AND CREDIT The Great Swamp Debacle and Other Washington Sagas. By L. William Seidman (1993) (Alan Abelson, NY Times Book Review)

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