Tell Me What You Think?

Like any author, I'm eager to hear what people think about what I've had to say and how you think the Fed and Bernanke in particular have handled the Great Panic. Post here -- but keep them polite and keep them short, please.

Comments

[Susan Nee]

David: Your book is such wonderful and scholarly piece of work. You describe with great clarity and skill the complex issues confronting Bernanke and the other "musketeers" during the Great Panics. I'm a layman but I was able to follow most of the story without getting too lost. Thank you for that.

I think this Thanksgiving I will give thanks that our country still has men such as Bernanke, Geithner, and Paulson (as rough he is, I liked him). These guys did as much to save our country from certain ruin as Grant & Sherman, Eishenhower & Bradley. They fought as tough a battle with as much uncertainty as to the outcome as any general involved in great battles of our country's past.
Yes, there's still high unemployment and things are still not settled down. But, the patient lived.

I look forward to reading more of your work.

[Bill Dahl]

David:

Spectacular! PERIOD!

I have reviewed your book here.

http://www.billdahl.net/featured/in-fed-we-trust-%E2%80%93-ben-bernanke%E2%80%99s-war-on-the-great-panic-%E2%80%93-how-the-federal-reserve-became-the-fourth-branch-of-government/

Spectacular! PERIOD!

[Bet Mulligan]

I'm about 140 pages into your book. I have to say you are one of the best non-fiction writers out there.

I'm familiar with the melt-down story from many different perspectives, but I wasn't aware of Geithner's closeness with Bernanke during the first few months as the crisis unfolded. It's made me want to know more about Geithner's involvement.

[Patrick Crotty]

Dear Mr. Wessel,

I just finished your book "In Fed We Trust" and enjoyed it immensely. One criticism I have is that you often include the month of an event or anecdote but leave out the year which makes it difficult to follow chronologically.

My only other criticism of the book is your assumption that a Depression had been prevented by Mr. Bernanke and Co's action. That my friend, is yet to be seen.

Best Regards,

Patrick Crotty

[Stacey Jeffers]

I love the book. I enjoyed reading your detailed account of how the FED handled the Great Panic. I also enjoyed the inside stories of the key players from the FED and the Treasury. However there is one question that always puzzles me. Why this big Housing Bubble (which led to the Great Panic) was not detected and prevented earlier? As you mentioned in the book, "WS Journal asked 55 economists in March 2008. With the benefit of hindsigt, if the FED was too slow to raise the federal funds rate...". 84 percent said yes. However why didn't the economists detect this problem when it was happening? When people are taking 100% loans to buy houses they cannot afford, that should be a sign. And this craze went on for quite a few years. Greenspan repeatedly denied there was a housing bubble. However people with common sense could tell this was happening. The FED was busy fighting the inflation and deflation, but they lost sight of the most visible threat to the economy...

[matthew emery]

David I too thoroughly enjoyed the book. My rebuttal to the thoughts you closed the book with are as follows: Congress never would have approved the dollars for any of the firms, institutions et. al. in the size that was needed, on a timely basis. When they were asked - they hesitated for sometimes a week, and the markets plunged irrationally! Next point: Lehman was no longer the player it once was (80's was their setting sun), for that matter neither was "Bear". Both relegated to the status of "retail shops" in the minds of institutional players. One of the two was probably perceived to be expendable by the actors in this situation. It so happened that JPChase came along in the "white hat" for Bear so it was Lehman that went down. (They probably saved the wrong one. Lastly, The idea that there could have been 1st, 2nd or 3rd tier plans for prudence sake, doesn't seem to me realistic. The Fed is after all a large "aircraft carrier. I believe they were already moving at "hyper-speed", for them, in order to catch up with the housing bust and all the ramifications that followed.

Matt Emery

[Stu Martin]

David,
Excellent book which illuminates what was going on behind the scenes during this crisis. Your ability to describe the workings of the market, the Fed, and Treasury, leads me to believe you missed your calling as an instructor of some sort. Many thanks. I learned a lot, enjoyed your book, and felt the need to buy it for family members.

[Steve Williams]

Enjoyed your book....have recommended to friends.

Now idea for the sequel....the US debt.....getting US government to post liabilities to its balance sheet....adding them up.....and dealing in a strategy on how to pay.....

[Grant Dinehart Langdon]

Perhaps house prices go to high becasue there was to much money looking for a place to "park." It is clear many of the people purchasing houses did not make enough money to meet their obligations. The push to invest in ousing came from the people that had more money than the needed or could find a productive use for. I place a lot of the problem on the tax cuts to the wealthy who needed a place to "park" their surplus funds. The tax cuts were unproductively invested. A more progressive tax policy is needed to restore balance. The rich simply accumulated to much of the nation's wealth

[David Wessel]

Under the law that created the Fed, the Federal Reserve Board in Washington is a government agency. Chairman Ben Bernanke is a government employee, nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. The 12 regional Fed banks spread throughout the country are owned by the commerical banks in their districts.

[win harrington]

Who owns the Fed?

[Gerard L. Caron]

I am not happy reading this. Members of Congress are in a conflict of interest when they accept funds, perks, and gratuities as in this case from banking
institutions.

They have permitted the greatest raid on the U. S.
Treasury ever.

They should handle the taxpayers' money like it is
their own.

[John Erickson]

I thoroughly enjoyed the book and look forward to Volume II in 2011.

[Jeff Anderson]

Outstanding work David. Alarming and insightful. It brought me right back to that period of enormous stress and sleepless nights that had us all wondering what was coming next and what it would mean. I couldn't put this one down.

I look forward to the sequel,"Exit Strategy", or perhaps "The W Shaped Recovery".

[Lars Olavson]

From the S&L disaster, to BCCI, Enron, TYCCO, PRIMEX trading on the NASDAQ exchange with the four big brokerage houses partnered with Bernie Madoff, subprime mortgages and the resulting securities sold as AAA, oil speculation and all the other $285 trillion computer games played in the derivatives market, there is a common thread, FRAUD.

In have only read the introduction and object to your characterization of the S&L disaster as "short sighted regulation and lousy Real Estate Loans". The regulation change which triggered that collapse was S&L Officers were permitted to make loans to themselves (with board approval). Many of these loans, based on phoney appraisals, never had a single payment made on them. Neil Bush was given a $350,000 home for approving a Silverado Officer Loan. This is fraud and should be characterized as such.

[Annie Nonymous]

Fascinating read...couldn't put it down....finished it in 3 days.

Thank you for the first paragraph on page 90.

[John Devlin]

from a Canadian perspective I must state that our banks up here came out better than yours that had to be bailed out by the government. There are many reasons for this. I put forward my own common sense hypothesis based on the theory that the Bank of Canada is stronger than the Fed because our currency has a stronger architecture of trust. Trust was lost in the USA: the reason for the Great Panic. Here is an URL to a brief (420 word) article which puts forward my theory of money, trust, and the architecture of trust. I hope that you may have time to read it even though it seems to come from the loony fringe
http://files.me.com/johndevlin2/bika71

[Ross Kelly]

Pure B.S.
The Federal Reserve is not federal nor is it a reserve. It is a privately owned bank(corporation) that has been leeching the wealth of America since 1913. You can write books all day long but it does not change the facts. These jerks including wall-street are the bane of our society and should e removed permanently and immediately. Anyone that stands with Bernanke, Geithner and Paulson (to start) should be charged with high treason against the U.S.A. and sentenced accordingly.

[Dan Holladay]

I really enjoyed your book! I recently read "Street Fighters" and "A Colossal Failure of Common Sense," both of which gave an inside look into the final days of Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers, respectively. Your book brought things full circle by offering an inside look into the other side--the Fed and the Treasury.

(On pages 262-263 you wrote, "Four months later, in early May, the Treasury and the Fed told Bank of America it needed to raise $33.9 million in capital to withstand a severe recession." In regard to the amount, I'm sure someone has already caught the typo, but I figured I would mention it just in case.)

[David Wessel]

Re Winston Smith's query about the gold coin: Honestly, the symbolism wasn't a factor in the cover design. Of course, one might say that unless we return to the gold standard, we are stuck with the Fed standard.

[Winston Smith]

I see on the cover you have what appears to be a Gold Coin. Gold being the antithesis of Central Banking; what is the meaning of the Gold Coin on the cover of your book?

[Ronald J. Fryer]

When I had a online subscription to the WSJ, I looked forward to your column Capital and found it helpful. Your style was clear and straight forward. Since then I enjoy your interviews on NPR and with a purchase of your book just a few days ago found out I can watch "Washington Week in Review" with an e-mail that will let me know when you are on.

I just got the book, so I have been reading it rapidly like a fast moving action movie, but there is just too much material, so I'm starting over slowly. I like it.

[Nick Choukair]

This financial turbulence only as an agreement to bail out the last administration.

[Mike Atkin]

Hi. I'm considering buying a Kindle but was disappointed to see your book priced so high. I hope they make it 9.99. Best regards.