Professor Blinder had two objectives in writing A Monetary and Fiscal History of the United States， 1961 – 2021。 First， to write an accessible economic history rather than a theoretical tome often produced by academics。 Second， to provide the definitive extension to A Monetary History of the United States， 1867 – 1960， the “monumental scholarly achievement” of Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz。 Blinder succeeded on both counts。Blinder grounds his book by discussing the challenges， from the Vietn Professor Blinder had two objectives in writing A Monetary and Fiscal History of the United States， 1961 – 2021。 First， to write an accessible economic history rather than a theoretical tome often produced by academics。 Second， to provide the definitive extension to A Monetary History of the United States， 1867 – 1960， the “monumental scholarly achievement” of Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz。 Blinder succeeded on both counts。Blinder grounds his book by discussing the challenges， from the Vietnam War to the COVID pandemic， that each presidential administration faced starting with John Kennedy and ending after first year of Joe Biden’s presidency。 All had an economic impact affecting inflation， unemployment， and economic growth。 It fell to the Federal Reserve to manage monetary （the money supply） policy and Congress to manage fiscal （spending and taxation） policy。 Blinder provides an honest， non-partisan accounting of how well his fellow economists met their challenges。During the Nixon administration， for example， Fed Chairman Arthur Burns surrendered the Federal Reserve’s independence to Nixon’s political agenda。 In 1980， Paul Volker had the courage to raise interest rates to unprecedented levels to break the inflationary spiral triggered by President Johnson’s “guns and butter” spending and the oil shocks a decade later。 Twenty years later， Alan Greenspan， “a libertarian apostle of Ayn Rand，” turned “a blind eye” towards the reckless financial excesses developing within the derivatives markets believing sophisticated financiers were self-regulating – perhaps the most colossal economic policy mistake since the Great Depression。Readers who managed to get through Econ 101 should have little trouble appreciating Blinder’s straightforward， often wry， writing。 Blinder seldom uses terms most readers with a little economics knowledge would not understand。 （One exception is Bagehot’s Dictum which will have many readers scurrying to Wikipedia）。 Surprisingly， Blinder never mentions Andrew Mellon， Treasury Secretary under Harding and Coolidge， and the father of modern supply-side economics which Mellon called “scientific taxation” in his 1924 book， Taxation: The People’s Business。I’m guessing that A Monetary and Fiscal History of the United States， 1961 – 2021 will quickly become one of the classic works in economics。 Fortunately， we non-economists can also appreciate Blinder’s fair and informative latest book。 。。。more