What is the Fed, anyway?

a monetary education · 2026-09-03

I want to learn more about how the FED and as a result the global monetary system work. I asked Claude to put a reading list together. My plan is to go through in the suggested sequence and see what I learn.

Part 1: What are the key instruments and who holds them?

• Read Wang, Central Banking 101
• Skim Fed Board, The Federal Reserve System: Purposes and Functions

Part 2: What are the mechanics of the FED?

• Watch Mehrling, Economics of Money and Banking

Part 3: History of monetary regimes

• Read Ahamed, Lords of Finance
• Read Eichengreen, Exorbitant Privilege
• Read Spiro, The Hidden Hand of American Hegemony
• Read Mehrlin, Money and Empire
• Read Tooze, Crashed
• Read Menand, The Fed Unbound
• Watch Wong, The Untold Story behind Saudi Arabia’s 41 year US Debt Secret

Part 4: Who are the marginal buyers of treasuries?

• Read Klein & Pettis, Trade Wars are Class Wars
• Read Koo, The Holy Grail of Macroeconomics
• Read BIS Quarterly Review, Sept 2024
• Read BIS, Dollar debt in FX swaps and forwards (Dec 2022)
• Read Howell, Capital Wars
• Read Sester, Follow the Money

Part 5: What now…

• Read Pozsar, Bretton Woods III
• Read Miran, A User’s guide to Restructuring the Global Trading System

2 other things to read at some point:

• Meltzer, A History of the Federal Reserve
• Stigum, Money Market