Central Banking 101

By: Joseph J Wang

Narrated by: Bill Anciaux

Length: 4 hrs and 49 mins

Publisher's summary

Central banking is magic. With a few words, the Fed can lift the stock market out of desperation and catapult it towards euphoric highs. With a few keystrokes, the Fed can conjure up trillions of dollars and fund virtually unlimited Federal spending. And with a few poor decisions, the Fed can plunge the entire world into a recession. The Federal Reserve is one of the most powerful institutions in the world, and also one of the most difficult to understand.

The Fed acts through its Open Markets Desk, which sits at the heart of the global financial system as the world’s ultimate and limitless provider of dollars. On behalf of policy makers, the Desk gathers market intelligence from all the major market participants, sifts through reams of internal data, and works behind the scenes to keep the financial system intact. It is responsible for all of the Fed's market operations, from trillions in quantitative easing to hundreds of billions in repo and FX-swap loans. The financial crises of 2008 and 2020 abated only through the emergency interventions of the Desk.

Joseph Wang spent five years studying the monetary system as a trader on the Desk. From that vantage point, Joseph saw firsthand how the Fed operates and how the financial system really works. This book is a distillation of his experience that aims to educate and demystify. After reading this book, you will understand how money is created, how the global dollar system is structured, and how it all fits into the broader financial system.

The views in this book do not necessarily reflect those of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York or the Federal Reserve System.

©2021 Joseph Wang (P)2023 Joseph Wang

Concise, informative and honest overview of central banking mechanics

This is the best overview of how central banks operate that I have been able to find. The text provides the proper level of detail to not be overly simplistic, yet also not too detailed and scientific. Highly recommend and believe Joseph Wang is one of the most honest voices in banking.

Great Knowledge & Information

Excellent job of explaining terms, concepts, and functions that are normally left unexplained or unspoken altogether.

Understanding the Stuff We Call Money

I first heard Mr. Joseph Wang while listening to a podcast wherein this book was referenced. Mr. Wang has been guest on a handful of podcasts and does a great job explaining things in layman's terms. Central banking is not what the average person would think but makes sense, works and solves (and causes) a lot of problems. I rank this book alongside John Bogle's "Common Sense on Mutual Funds" in terms of readily explaining economic realities.

A good book to freshen up on the inner workings of the federal reserve

I thought this book was a decent read and it brought in a lot of important discussions of the inner workings of what the federal reserve is attempting to do. I just felt like if this is a “101” book or a “let’s explain this to the layman” book it just became very convoluted when discussing all of the sectors of the market that i think will confuse a lot of first time readers of the Fed/central banking.

I would have liked it to instead focus more on the types of policies and power, that central banks around the world have and how exactly that translates into society. Basically for a 101 book I don’t think this is a good starting point for someone just coming into reading about the federal reserve, truthfully I think Ron Paul’s End The Fed or Murray Rothbards The Mystery of Banking is a better introduction book as a 101 but then again, to each it’s own!

a bit all over the place

good content, but it's all over the place. some chapters are very interesting but seem to deviate from the main topic. although they tie loosely, they were properly tied into the rest of the book as it pertains to central banking