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This book provides an insider’s perspective on the bureaucratic structure of governmental institutions that shape economic policy and on the incentives and limitations of the individuals who head those institutions. The book is a work of contemporary history, written as events unfold. We do not know how today’s events will end but, without a doubt, they pose the greatest challenge since the Second World War to those who are responsible for the world’s economic health. This book is a guide to how the world’s economic decisionmakers think, what drives them, and what limits their scope of action.

Lawrence B. Lindsey is a resident scholar and holder of the Arthur F. Burns Chair in Economics at AEI. The author of The Growth Experiment: How the New Tax Policy Is Transforming the U.S. Economy (Basic Books, 1990), he served as a governor of the Federal Reserve Board from 1991 to 1997. He is also Managing Director of Economic Strategies, an economic advisory service based in New York City. He is a former professor of Economics at Harvard University. Dr. Lindsey also served three years on the staff of the Council of Economic Advisers during the Reagan Administration, during which he was senior staff economist for tax policy.