Description
Book SynopsisMitchel Abolafia goes behind the scenes with the Federal Reserve’s powerful Open Market Committee as it responded to the 2008 financial crisis. Relying on verbatim transcripts of closed meetings, Abolafia shows how assumptions about self-correcting markets stymied the Fed and how its leaders came to embrace new ideas.
Trade ReviewAbolafia peels back the technocratic veneer and exposes to the reader how deeply social the Fed decision-making body truly is…A refreshing take on the financial crisis…This book reveals the limits of our civic institutions, not only in their interpretive capacity as social bodies but also in the face of political pressure. -- Derek Harmon * Administrative Science Quarterly *
This is a great book…Those who are interested in the history of monetary policy will take away many important lessons about the Fed, and how the Fed’s leaders and the institution itself, learned to adapt their policies to the new economic paradigm it faced. -- Harvey Rosenblum * Business Economics *
A detailed analysis of how the Federal Reserve transformed itself from a passive to an active regulator of the financial market…A fascinating read for researchers in economic, political, and comparative/historical sociology…Abolafia elegantly decodes the economic jargon with a page-turning narrative. -- Ken-Hou Lin * Contemporary Sociology *
Mitchel Abolafia is known as the pioneer of the modern sociology of finance. In this book, his magnum opus, he uses the protocols from the meetings of the Federal Reserve to analyze how its members thought and deliberated during the financial crisis of 2008. As the reader will find out, by having this single focus, the author is able to provide several new puzzle pieces to what actually happened during this momentous event. -- Richard Swedberg, author of
The Art of Social TheoryThe Federal Open Market Committee is one of the most important decision-making bodies in the world. Its officials must gaze into the uncertain world of the economy and try to predict what might happen next.
Stewards of the Market unpacks the black box of their deliberations by focusing on how they came to understand the financial crisis of 2008. This fascinating book should be of interest to anyone who wants to understand how the Federal Reserve missed the crisis but saved the economy. -- Neil Fligstein, author of
The Transformation of Corporate ControlThis riveting book shows, in real time and in great detail, how members of the Federal Reserve tried to make sense of the 2008 financial crisis. Abolafia shows that for all of their immense knowledge, the Fed’s members found themselves relying on culturally-defined scripts and grasping at straws, blinded by an almost religious faith in the self-correcting character of the financial markets. Yet unlike many critics, Abolafia treats his subjects with respect, acknowledging the enormity of the difficulties they faced. This book is essential reading for anyone who hopes to understand the previous crisis, as well as those hoping to prevent the next one. -- Mark Mizruchi, author of
The Fracturing of the American Corporate Elite
