The Lords of Easy Money: How the Federal Reserve Broke the American Economy by Christopher Leonard

The Lords of Easy Money: How the Federal Reserve Broke the American Economy

by Christopher Leonard

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Business & Finance

When the Fed creates money, you'd assume it reaches the economy you live in. Leonard's case is that a decade of quantitative easing reached asset owners first and everyone else last, if at all. Kansas City Fed president Thomas Hoenig said so at the time, was outvoted, and has aged better than the consensus.

Core ideas
  • Hoenig: The dissenter nobody listened to, whose specific predictions have held up.
  • Where the money goes: New money bids up assets, which you either own or you don't, and the working economy gets what trickles down.
  • The 2020 rescue: Less a one-off COVID emergency than the next step in a decade of accumulated expansion.
Published2022
ISBN9781797135540
ReadMay 2026

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