There are no insights to Greenspan or the Fed. No interviews with Fed officials. Its like reading newspaper clippings. He has absolutely zero access to Greenspan and some of his facts are false. I work on Wall Street and for us this book was a joke.

We always watch the yield curve and try to unsuccesfully predict how changes in its slope might affect market expectations. Knowing about the person who indirectly draws it makes a lot of sense. Undoubtly, Alan Greenspan will be remembered for many years to come as one of the greatest economic minds of this century. Highly recommended. Not very technical which makes it an easy read...

We became familiar with Steven Beckner as reporter on the U.S. economy for National Public Radio. However, reading his most recent book: Back for the Brink: The Greenspan Years the reading public may not be reminded of a voice emanating from the radio as much as reminded of William Greider's wonderful book, Secrets of the Temple.

Published in 1987, Greider's book gave us a brief history of the Federal Reserve System in the United States and carried the survey of its history up to the October 1987 crash of the stock market spending a great deal of the book discussing the administration of Paul Volcker as the chairman of the Federal Reserve Board. That book left the present author wanting more. Steve Beckner's book is the answer to that prayer.

Picking up almost exactly at the time of the October 1987 crash, Beckner brings the story of the Federal Reserve up to September of 1995. The book has already become one of those books which is referred back to even after it has been completely read, spending as little time on the shelf as the dictionary and other reference materials in this house.

Heavily into the subject, Beckner spends little time explaining his terminology. Even for readers with some background in economics this can be distracting as readers break off in the middle of a good read to look up Germany's Bundesbank Lombard rate to understand what Beckner is trying to say.

Still in all, some reviewers may have been unfair to Beckner to state that he fawns over the actions of Alan Greenspan. What may appear as fawning on the surface may actually be the writing style a reporter who has learned to take care in the statements he makes to avoid sending misinterpreted ripples to the markets which have in the past been characterized as "the Beckner effect" by the New York Times as noted in the dust cover of the book. Reading the book in light of this reserve means playing tennis with the net up rather than down. Nonetheless, a careful reading of the book reveals clear criticism of Greenspan for his lack of independence from the policies of the Clinton Administration and for his over reation to the so-called "credit crunch of 1992" a phenomenon whose very existence is still being debated. The book is, therefore, an important addition to every current affairs collection.

Brian Wayne Wells
Attorney at Law
Charleston, West Virginia