In Fed We Trust

This is a book I just finished by David Wessel on the meltdown of the last couple years mostly from the view of Bernanke and the Fed. It covers how the stage was set going back to August 2007 and is very good on the events of last fall. It is amazing how much was going on that even very knowledgeable people did not understand. And the extreme measures the Fed had to take.

There are some funny moments, too. When Bernanke and Paulson had to go to Congress to request money, Harry Reid commented that it would take the Senate two weeks to pass a bill to flush the toilet.

I'm not sure what to read or finish next. I've got several books started, but either lost interest or they were too long or intimidating. I am feeling intellectually bored and need to find some outlet. So I signed up for the Osher Program at the University of Utah, which is for we seniors over 50 years of age. They have six-week classes that meet once a week for an hour and a half during the daytime. I am taking a class next semester on the history of Iran and how it relates to the present. If anybody has some other ideas, I'd love to hear them. Lifelong learning at the U is too artsy-crafty and I am not sure I want to devote the effort to taking a real class, especially if it meets more than once a week. The great joy of graduate school was reading books and discussing them...with a very knowledgeable instructor. I need to figure out how to replicate that kind of experience.