The Courage to Act
It was 2006 when Ben Bernanke, a renowned American economist, was designated chair of the Federal Reserve. But the bursting of a housing bubble in 2007 gave him little time to celebrate. The unfortunate crash exposed the covert weaknesses of the global financial system, bringing the financial economy to the brink of meltdown. In this New York Times bestseller, Bernanke accounts the inside story of how his Fed team battled the crisis with every tool at their disposal to prevent an economic collapse of unimaginable scale. Rich with particulars of the decision-making process that went down in Washington and enduring portraits of the key players, The Courage to Act recounts the worst financial crisis and economic slump in America since the Great Depression.
A Financial Times Best Book of 2015
Library Journal Best Core Nonfiction 2015
“Revelatory…the book sheds light on many of the smaller dramas that hang over this crucial period of world economic history.”
— New York Times
“Undoubtedly the best account we will ever have of how government and financial institutions dealt with what has come to be known as the Great Recession.”
“A careful, detailed, and exceptionally clear justification for the Fed’s aggressive actions to avert another Great Depression and resuscitate the American economy.”
— Washington Post
“Bernanke’s insights are instructive about what went wrong and how to keep it from happening again.”
“A fantastic and reasonably accessible introduction to the economic thought of a former Federal Reserve Chair.”
— Vox
“A fascinating account of the effort to save the world from another catastrophe [like the Great Depression]…. Under Bernanke’s chairmanship, the Fed, whatever its pre-crisis mistakes, helped save the U.S. and the world from a disaster. Humanity should be grateful.”
— Martin Wolf, The Financial Times