Engine of Inequality: the Fed and Future Wealth in America

PRAISE FOR ENGINE OF INEQUALITY “Karen Petrou, one of the world’s deepest financial thinkers, puts her finger on the proximate cause of the pre- and post-Covid enormous increase in the stock market and associated growth in extreme U.S. wealth inequality. It’s the Federal Reserve’s ongoing No-Cost Lender of First Resort Policy. Her book is a tour de force—brilliant, fundamental, elucidating, and engaging. It’s also a sad story about well-meaning policy boomeranging badly on the middle class.” —Laurence Kotlikoff, Professor of Economics at Boston University, President of Economic Security Planning, and a New York Times bestselling author “This book is highly critical of Fed policy and will receive a lot of attention, especially if Fed policy doesn’t work in the coming years.” —Henry Kaufman, President, Henry Kaufman & Company “Petrou’s book uncovers a hidden engine of our skyrocketing inequality: financial policy. In accessible and engaging prose, Petrou takes us through the inner workings of monetary policy at the Fed and financial regulations, how they’ve made inequality worse, and how they could instead be retooled to take us to a more equitable future. A novel look at the problem of inequality and bold ideas to help resolve it. A must-read.” —Emmanuel Saez, Director of the Center for Equitable Growth at the University of California at Berkeley The first book to reveal how the Federal Reserve holds the key to making us more economically equal, written by an author with unparalleled expertise in the real world of financial policy Following the 2008 financial crisis, the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy placed much greater focus on stabilizing the market than on helping struggling Americans. As a result, the richest Americans got a lot richer while the middle class shrank and economic and wealth inequality skyrocketed. In Engine of Inequality, Karen Petrou offers pragmatic solutions for creating more inclusive monetary policy and equality-enhancing financial regulation as quickly and painlessly as possible. Karen Petrou is a leading financial-policy analyst and consultant with unrivaled knowledge of what drives the decisions of federal officials and how big banks respond to financial policy in the real world. Instead of proposing legislation that would never pass Congress, the author provides an insider's look at politically plausible, high-impact financial policy fixes that will radically shift the equality balance. Offering an innovative, powerful, and highly practical solution for immediately turning around the enormous nationwide problem of economic inequality, this groundbreaking book: Presents practical ways America can and should tackle economic inequality with fast-acting results Provides revealing examples of exactly how bad economic inequality in America has become no matter how hard we all work Demonstrates that increasing inequality is disastrous for long-term economic growth, political action, and even personal happiness Explains why your bank's interest rates are still only a fraction of what they were even though the rich are getting richer than ever, faster than ever Reveals the dangers of FinTech and BigTech companies taking over banking Shows how Facebook wants to control even the dollars in your wallet Discusses who shares the blame for our economic inequality, including the Fed, regulators, Congress, and even economists Engine of Inequality: The Fed and the Future of Wealth in America should be required reading for leaders, policymakers, regulators, media professionals, and all Americans wanting to ensure that the nation’s financial policy will be a force for promoting economic equality.

Pagina's: 288, Editie: Eerste editie, Hardcover, Wiley