Limitless The Federal Reserve Takes on a New Age of Crisis

This fascinating deep dive into one of the most powerful and least understood American institutions—the Federal Reserve—is “a riveting narrative...[and] an invaluable guide to the monetary policy debates of the last few years" (Liaquat Ahamed, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Lords of Finance).

“The best book on the Fed in our time and a model of financial writing.” –Kirkus

The marble halls of the Federal Reserve have always held secrets; for decades the Fed did the utmost to preserve its room to maneuver, operating behind the scenes as much as possible. Yet over the past two decades, this elite world of bankers and economists speaking a language that only monetary experts could understand has been forced to change its ways. Amid rising inequality, weakening global economic prospects, and a pandemic, the central bank has entered into a new era of transparency and activism that has changed its role in modern society in subtle but remarkable ways.

Limitless tells the inside story of this deeply impactful transformation, and what it means for ordinary Americans. Focusing on characters such as the Fed chairman Jerome Powell; the Vice Chair for Supervision Randal Quarles; Vice Chair Lael Brainard; the Minneapolis Fed president Neel Kashkari; and the long-ago Fed Chair Marriner S. Eccles—and driven by the rising tension between Main Street and Wall Street—this is a page-turning account of the modern Fed’s inner workings during a crucial inflection point in history.

JEANNA SMIALEK has been the Federal Reserve reporter at The New York Times since April 2019. She has covered economic policy since 2013, including growth data, the Treasury Department and the European Central Bank. She has written for Bloomberg News and Bloomberg Businessweek, is a regular contributor for MarketPlace radio, Wharton Business Daily, and occasionally contributes to CNN, BBC Radio, CSPAN, and CBSN. A Pittsburgh native, Smialek splits her time between Washington, D.C. and New York City.