By February 2020, the U.S. economic expansion had become the longest on record. Unemployment was plumbing half-century lows. Stock markets soared to new highs. One month later, the public health battle against a deadly virus had pushed the economy into the equivalent of a medically induced coma. America's workplaces-offices, shops, malls, and factories-shuttered. Many of the nation's largest employers and tens of thousands of small businesses faced ruin. Over 22 million American jobs were lost. The extreme uncertainty led to some of the largest daily drops ever in the stock market.
Nick Timiraos, the
Wall Street Journal's chief economics correspondent, draws on extensive interviews to detail the tense meetings, late night phone calls, and crucial video conferences behind the largest, swiftest U.S. economic policy response since World War II.
Trillion Dollar Triage goes inside the Federal Reserve, one of the country's most important and least understood institutions, to chronicle how its plainspoken chairman, Jay Powell, unleashed an unprecedented monetary barrage to keep the economy on life support. With the bleeding stemmed, the Fed faced a new challenge: How to nurture a recovery without unleashing an inflation-fueling, bubble-blowing money bomb?
Trillion Dollar Triage is the definitive, gripping history of a creative and unprecedented battle to shield the American economy from the twin threats of a public health disaster and economic crisis. Economic theory and policy will never be the same.
About the AuthorNick Timiraos has been The Wall Street Journal's chief Fed scribe for the last three years, a period that spans all of Powell's term in office and makes him uniquely positioned to tell this story now. His storytelling perch is one of the paper's highest profile assignments, and traders pay close attention to his work given his authoritative reporting and excellent access to key players at the Fed, the 12 reserve banks in its system, and across Wall Street. He also maintains close contacts with sources at the White House, Treasury Department and executive branch agencies. Nick has been at the Journal for 14 years, first in New York and now in Washington.
Book InformationISBN 9780316272810
Author Nick TimiraosFormat Hardback
Page Count 352
Imprint Little, Brown & CompanyPublisher Little, Brown & Company
Weight(grams) 560g
Dimensions(mm) 243mm * 161mm * 35mm