Fed Up

Today’s Outside the Box is a special treat. My good friend and fellow Texan Danielle DiMartino Booth’s new book, Fed Up: An Insider’s Take on Why the Federal Reserve Is Bad for America, was out officially yesterday, on Valentine’s Day, and already there are dozens of reviews all over the internet.
Ten years ago, Danielle left a trading gig on Wall Street to work directly for Dallas Federal Reserve President Richard Fisher. She helped him gain insights into the economy and aided in crafting his speeches and writings. Those of us who knew her knew that she was a gifted writer; and when Fisher resigned and Danielle left the Fed, she started her own website and newsletter; and now her talent is apparent to many more people. She is the third most followed person on LinkedIn, after less than a year.
And then we come to her book. It’s a simply devastating account of what actually goes on inside the Federal Reserve. To say she eviscerates that august institution is to be kind. I saw her treatment of the Fed coming, because Danielle and I have shared many conversations in which we despaired of the impact the Federal Reserve is having on Main Street. But what do you expect when you have a bunch of PhDs who share an economic philosophy and an attitude that lets them think they know just how to manage the US economy and control the price of the most valuable commodity in the world, the interest rate on the US dollar.
That low rates devastate middle-class savers and retirees (as they enrichen Wall Street and the big banks) seems not to register on the Fed’s cost-benefit analysis scale. I think longtime readers pretty well know how I feel about the Federal Reserve and their policies.

This post was published at Mauldin Economics on FEBRUARY 15, 2017.