The Courage to Act
Ben Bernanke Norton, 624 pages, $35
Ben Bernanke is known for his cool head and thoughtful persona. Toward the end of his stint as chairman of the Federal Reserve from 2006 to 2014, President Obama described him as the "epitome of calm." It is no surprise, then, that Bernanke's account of his time in office — "The Courage to Act: A Memoir of a Crisis and its Aftermath" — is an analytical affair, lacking the pulsating drama of previous accounts of the financial crisis. Instead, he provides a robust defense of the Fed's response to it. Bernanke clearly sees himself as having done what was necessary to avert disaster, in the face of a barrage of unwarranted criticism. When it comes to monetary policy, though, the real theme of the book is communication. Bernanke made the Fed more transparent. "Monetary policy is 98 percent talk and 2 percent action," he argues.
The book's biggest revelation is that, when testifying before Congress after Lehman's collapse, Bernanke hid his belief that the government had been powerless to save the bank. He and Henry Paulson, the treasury secretary, did not want to acknowledge the limits to their power, for fear of spooking markets. This, he says, has left an incorrect impression that letting Lehman fail was a choice. Bernanke is gracious about his critics, but he is clearly keen to give his version of history. The result is a book that compels more than it entertains. That tendency, though, is a desirable trait in a central banker — especially during a crisis.
THE ECONOMIST
