"The global financial system is badly broken. Many institutions and individuals share responsibility for the development of pathologies in and around our largest banks, but the buck stops, literally and figuratively, with the Federal Reserve. If you would like to understand how this happened--and how we (and the Fed) might inch back from the precipice--read this book."--Simon Johnson, coauthor of 13 Bankers: The Wall Street Takeover and the Next Financial Meltdown

"Informed by history, a model of clear thought and lucid prose, The New Lombard Street is by far our best guidebook to the changed structure of financial markets and the new role of the Federal Reserve. It also charts a new path for monetary policymakers and--given the scale of the crisis--not a minute too soon."--James K. Galbraith, author of The Predator State: How Conservatives Abandoned the Free Market and Why Liberals Should Too

"In Lombard Street, Walter Bagehot laid out the financial market lore and central banking wisdom of his day--the 1870s. Today's markets are different, and so is what constitutes useful policy. In The New Lombard Street, Perry Mehrling blends his rich historical knowledge with an acute analysis of current-day markets to suggest what constitutes sound central banking and financial regulation for our time. The result merits close attention from policymakers, and the rest of us too."--Benjamin M. Friedman, author of The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth

"No one else has come close to the achievement of this book in relating the crisis to the prior history of monetary thought and central bank practice. A masterful, original, and beautifully constructed work."--Charles A. E. Goodhart, London School of Economics and Political Science

"The New Lombard Street makes a serious and successful effort to deepen our understanding not just of the last century or more of U.S. monetary history, but also of the way in which economic analysis has evolved alongside that history. I very much enjoyed reading this book. It is timely, provocative, and well written."--David Laidler, professor emeritus, University of Western Ontario

"This is a wonderful book that offers a fresh understanding of the role of the central bank in the world of modern finance."--Roger E. Backhouse, University of Birmingham