false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172628799m/200251.jpg 200251 12 Bob Woodward called his biography of Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan <I>Maestro</I> for two reasons. First, Greenspan is a musician. He started out as a Julliard-trained jazz sax man. "He wasn't a good improviser," Woodward reports. And while the other guys got stoned all night, Greenspan "read economics and business books and eventually became the band's bookkeeper." He also cultivated powerful pals, like Ayn Rand, whose coterie dubbed the dour young man "The Undertaker."<p> More profoundly, Greenspan is a maestro, a conductor, exquisitely attuned to every instrument in the political and economic orchestra. He rules by consensus, but with a firm hand and notoriously inscrutable words. Marvelously, Woodward relates that Greenspan had to propose twice to his wife, the violinist-turned-TV news star Andrea Mitchell, before she understood: "His verbal obscurity and caution were so ingrained that Mitchell didn't even know that he had asked her to marry him." Woodward gives us the inside story of what Greenspan really thinks and how he outmaneuvered the most ruthless politicians on earth in some of the hairiest times imaginable, from the 1987 stock market crash to the 1994-95 Mexican crisis to the stomach-churning turn of the century. It turns out that for all his awesome knowledge of monetary minutiae, the Fed chief literally relies on "a pain in the pit of my stomach" to make decisions. "At times, he found his body sensed danger before his head," writes Woodward. The Fed chief also adapts Einstein's technique to economics, hunting for discrepancies as keys to deeper theories. Einstein made breakthroughs out of bent light; Greenspan deduced productivity gains that government statisticians had overlooked for years. (The gains appeared when Greenspan made the statisticians calculate productivity by business sector, the way it's done in the real world.) <p> Woodward's prose is cool and rational, not exuberant. But if you're into economics and politics, you'll find a rich gossip trove here. Who knew Reagan had a draft of a presidential order to shut down Wall Street trading at hand in 1987? Scary! Reading <I>Maestro</I> is better than sitting with Greenspan in his famous tub as he charts your future--it's like being right there inside his head. <I>--Tim Appelo</I> 1055318 2000 Maestro : Greenspan's Fed and the American Boom total:198|5:21|4:58|3:91|2:26|1:2| 198 664 268 24 200251 0743205626 9780743205627 176 22 3.35 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172628799m/200251.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/200251.Maestro_Greenspan_s_Fed_and_the_American_Boom 3 0 false Sun Oct 26 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Oct 19 18:03:18 -0700 2008 Tue Mar 17 22:55:56 -0700 2009 "Whoever controls the volume of money in any country is absolute master of all industry and commerce." ~James Garfield

I remember one day in the late 1990's, my professor in a macro-economics class said that Alan Greenspan was the most powerful person in the world. This intri...more...]]> 200251 0743205626 9780743205627 176 22 3.35 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172628799m/200251.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/200251.Maestro_Greenspan_s_Fed_and_the_American_Boom 4 0 false Tue May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sun Dec 23 20:00:31 -0800 2007 Sun Dec 23 20:01:27 -0800 2007 more...]]> 200251 0743205626 9780743205627 176 22 3.35 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172628799m/200251.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/200251.Maestro_Greenspan_s_Fed_and_the_American_Boom 3 0 false Fri Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2000 Sat Nov 24 19:13:31 -0800 2007 Sat Nov 24 19:16:02 -0800 2007
Narrator: James Naughton
Length: 4 hours 30 min. (abridged)

Publisher's Summary
Perhaps the last Washington secret is how the Federal Reserve and its enigmatic chairman, Alan Greenspan, operate. What do they do? Why precisely do they do it?...more...]]> 200251 0743205626 9780743205627 176 22 3.35 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172628799m/200251.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/200251.Maestro_Greenspan_s_Fed_and_the_American_Boom 1 0 false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2004 Wed Jul 22 21:54:12 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 22 21:57:38 -0700 2009 more...]]> 200251 0743205626 9780743205627 176 22 3.35 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172628799m/200251.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/200251.Maestro_Greenspan_s_Fed_and_the_American_Boom 5 0 false Fri Apr 01 00:00:00 -0800 2005 Fri Dec 21 11:31:52 -0800 2007 Fri Dec 21 11:38:15 -0800 2007 more...]]> 1068652 0743204123 9780743204125 13 2 3.35 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1180715778m/1068652.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1068652.Maestro_How_Alan_Greenspan_Conducts_the_Economy 5 0 false Wed Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Jan 11 13:46:15 -0800 2009 Sun Jan 11 13:49:48 -0800 2009 200251 0743205626 9780743205627 176 22 3.35 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172628799m/200251.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/200251.Maestro_Greenspan_s_Fed_and_the_American_Boom 4 0 false Wed Aug 27 06:17:04 -0700 2008 Wed Aug 27 06:19:59 -0700 2008 more...]]> 200251 0743205626 9780743205627 176 22 3.35 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172628799m/200251.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/200251.Maestro_Greenspan_s_Fed_and_the_American_Boom 3 0 false Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Tue Dec 23 12:22:51 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 23 12:23:35 -0800 2008 1068652 0743204123 9780743204125 13 2 3.35 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1180715778m/1068652.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1068652.Maestro_How_Alan_Greenspan_Conducts_the_Economy 3 0 false Thu Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2005 Wed Jul 29 12:44:27 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 29 12:44:45 -0700 2009 200251 0743205626 9780743205627 176 22 3.35 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172628799m/200251.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/200251.Maestro_Greenspan_s_Fed_and_the_American_Boom 3 0 false Sat Jun 16 08:12:20 -0700 2007 Sat Jun 16 08:12:20 -0700 2007 more...]]> 200251 0743205626 9780743205627 176 22 3.35 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172628799m/200251.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/200251.Maestro_Greenspan_s_Fed_and_the_American_Boom 4 0 false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2002 Thu May 15 16:22:28 -0700 2008 Thu May 15 16:25:06 -0700 2008
Woodward is a great reporter and he paces the book well. Yo...more...]]> 200251 0743205626 9780743205627 176 22 3.35 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172628799m/200251.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/200251.Maestro_Greenspan_s_Fed_and_the_American_Boom 5 0 false Mon Feb 04 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Wed Feb 20 23:06:01 -0800 2008 Tue Mar 04 12:30:22 -0800 2008
Very much a "...more...]]> 200251 0743205626 9780743205627 176 22 3.35 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172628799m/200251.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/200251.Maestro_Greenspan_s_Fed_and_the_American_Boom 2 0 false Thu Oct 30 19:49:33 -0700 2008 Thu Oct 30 19:50:35 -0700 2008 200251 0743205626 9780743205627 176 22 3.35 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172628799m/200251.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/200251.Maestro_Greenspan_s_Fed_and_the_American_Boom 3 0 false Thu May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat May 24 22:24:49 -0700 2008 Sun Jul 13 18:41:47 -0700 2008 200251 0743205626 9780743205627 176 22 3.35 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172628799m/200251.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/200251.Maestro_Greenspan_s_Fed_and_the_American_Boom 4 0 false Wed Dec 06 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Sun Feb 17 18:25:18 -0800 2008 Sun Feb 17 18:47:51 -0800 2008 200251 0743205626 9780743205627 176 22 3.35 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172628799m/200251.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/200251.Maestro_Greenspan_s_Fed_and_the_American_Boom 4 0 false Sat May 24 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat May 24 18:22:10 -0700 2008 Sat May 24 18:23:12 -0700 2008 200251 0743205626 9780743205627 176 22 3.35 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172628799m/200251.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/200251.Maestro_Greenspan_s_Fed_and_the_American_Boom 4 0 false Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Thu Apr 24 13:24:34 -0700 2008 Thu Apr 24 13:25:39 -0700 2008 200251 0743205626 9780743205627 176 22 3.35 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172628799m/200251.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/200251.Maestro_Greenspan_s_Fed_and_the_American_Boom 3 0 false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Wed Apr 23 18:49:53 -0700 2008 Wed Apr 23 18:50:43 -0700 2008 200251 0743205626 9780743205627 176 22 3.35 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172628799m/200251.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/200251.Maestro_Greenspan_s_Fed_and_the_American_Boom 4 0 false Fri Feb 29 18:01:04 -0800 2008 Fri Feb 29 18:02:05 -0800 2008 200251 0743205626 9780743205627 176 22 3.35 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172628799m/200251.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/200251.Maestro_Greenspan_s_Fed_and_the_American_Boom 2 0 false Thu Jun 11 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Mar 25 19:28:49 -0700 2009 Thu Jun 11 07:56:23 -0700 2009 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=200251