The Lords of Easy Money — where the Fed went wrong

Financial Times/Rana Foroohar/1-20-2022

“[Author Christopher Leonard] follows Thomas Hoenig, the plain-spoken Kansas City banker who was, back in 2010, the single dissenting vote on the policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee to stand against the US central bank’s quantitative easing programme. He turns the unassuming economist into the protagonist of a compelling tale about how the Federal Reserve changed the entire nature of the American economy.”

USAGOLD note:  This review of Leonard’s book covers considerable ground. One of his comments stands out: Zero-interest rate policy has made price discovery in U.S. financial markets almost impossible. Where there is no price discovery, in our view, there is no real value. And where is the bottom in a market where real value has been missing since 2008 when quantitative easing began? In the end, the chickens inevitably come home to roost. Hoenig is something of a profile in courage in a day when most in positions of authority play along to get along.