Synopses & Reviews
The inside story of the work of the world’s most powerful central bankers, offering an unparalleled view from the cockpit of the global economy, as three men struggle to keep it from going down
Six times a year, Basel, Switzerland, hosts what is arguably the planet’s most exclusive dinner party, an intimate weekend gathering of the world’s most powerful central bankers to exchange ideas, eat and drink well, and enjoy the company of the only people who can understand the unique burdens they share. Neil Irwin’s The Alchemists opens in Basel during the May 2010 meeting, with Europe in the throes of a particularly acute installment of its ongoing financial crisis, and each of our protagonists facing his own particular dilemma. For Jean-Claude Trichet of the European Central Bank, it is to try to save a currency union that he spent a lifetime building. For Mervyn King of the Bank of England, it is to navigate the rough waters of domestic British politics without walloping either his nation’s economy or his own credibility. For Ben Bernanke of the Federal Reserve, it is to try to keep the global economy afloat without making the Fed the target of Congress’s anger and thus endangering the institution he leads. It is just one more fiendishly tricky moment they have faced together since August 2007, when fissures in the system first became visible to the naked eye.
Irwin leaps back from 2010 to tell the full story of the last five years from the vantage of these three central bankers as they worked in close coordination to try to keep ahead of unfolding events. Irwin has spent years covering the world’s central banks and their leaders, and he enjoys a rare degree of intimacy with them and their challenges. From the beginning of the global financial crisis, he has been one of the few with the vision and the access to chronicle it as it truly is—an interconnected global phenomenon. Deftly woven throughout the book is an invaluable history of central banking, which provides essential context to the present-day story in the United States and abroad.
The Alchemists is the high-drama, panoramic story of the central bankers’ role in the world economy we have been missing, with the reach of a contemporary version of Liaquat Ahamed’s Lords of Finance. It is a landmark reckoning with central bankers and their power, with the great financial crisis of our time, and with the history of the relationship between capitalism and the state. Definitive, revelatory, and riveting, The Alchemists shows us where money comes from—and where it may well be going.
Review
The New York Times: "[Mr. Irwin] has provided an accessible, engrossing account of the tribulations that Mr. Bernanke, with Mervyn A. King of the Bank of England and Jean-Claude Trichet of the European Central Bank, endured in pulling the world financial system back from collapse... Mr. Irwin seems to have talked with everyone, read the right scholarly papers and interviewed important dissenters in the Fed, the European Central Bank, the Bank of England and the Bundesbank... He has a nice touch for translating central bankingand#8217;s mysteries, opaque and forbidding, into understandable English. He is astute in describing the internal and external politics of institutions traditionally expected to remain above politics of the usual sort."
Adam S. Posen, Foreign Affairs, President of the Peterson Institute for International Economics and member of the Bank of Englandand#8217;s Monetary Policy Committee from 2009 to 2012:
"An excellent account...scrupulously reported and full of clear explanations of events and economic concepts....an incredibly valuable book for all economically concerned non-economists. As someone who knows well the three central bankers that the book features...I can attest that the narrative has more than just a ring of truth. It gets the individuals, the circumstances surrounding their decisions, and their motivations right and also presents them fairly. Irwinand#8217;s volume will have lasting value for a wide range of audiences, including students and elected officials, but it will make its greatest contribution as a corrective to the many unfounded or simply crazy ideas about monetary policymakersand#8217; intentions and impact."
The Wall Street Journal:
"A detailed and fast-moving account of these perilous years. This is the crisis as told through emails, phone calls, meetings and one very fateful walk along the beach in Deauville, France."
Kirkus Reviews:
"The most complete and authoritative account to date of the response of the central bankers to the global financial crisis."
Synopsis
The inside story of the work of the worldandrsquo;s most powerful central bankers, offering an unparalleled view from the cockpit of the global economy, as three men struggle to keep it from going down Six times a year, Basel, Switzerland, hosts what is arguably the planetandrsquo;s most exclusive party, an intimate weekend gathering of the worldandrsquo;s most powerful central bankers to exchange ideas, eat and drink well, and revel in the company of the only people who can understand the unique burdens they share. Neil Irwinandrsquo;s The Alchemists opens in Basel during the May 2010 meeting, with Europe in the throes of a particularly acute installment of its ongoing financial crisis, and each of our protagonists facing his own particular dilemma. For Jean-Claude Trichet of the European Central Bank, it is to try to save a currency union that he spent a lifetime building. For Mervyn King of the Bank of England, it is to navigate the rough waters of domestic British politics without walloping either his nationandrsquo;s economy or his own credibility. For Ben Bernanke of the Federal Reserve, it is to try to keep the global economy afloat without making the Fed the target of Congressandrsquo;s anger. It is just one more fiendishly tricky moment they have faced together since August 2007, when fissures in the system first became visible to the naked eye.
Irwin leaps back from 2010 to tell the full story of the last five years from the vantage of these three central bankers as they worked in close coordination to keep ahead of unfolding events. Irwin has spent years covering the worldandrsquo;s central banks and their leaders, and he enjoys a rare degree of intimacy with them and their challenges. From the beginning of the global financial crisis, he has been one of the few with the vision and the access to chronicle it as it truly isandmdash;an interconnected global phenomenon. Deftly woven throughout the book is an invaluable history of central banking, which provides essential context to the present-day story in the United States and abroad.
The Alchemists is the high-drama, panoramic story of the central bankersandrsquo; role in the world economy we have been missing, with the reach of a contemporary version of Liaquat Ahamedandrsquo;s Lords of Finance. It is a landmark reckoning with central bankers and their power, with the great financial crisis of our time, and with the history of the relationship between capitalism and the state. Definitive, revelatory, and riveting, The Alchemists shows us where money comes fromandmdash;and where it may well be going.
Synopsis
When the first fissures became visible to the naked eye in August 2007, suddenly the most powerful men in the world were three men who were never elected to public office. They were the leaders of the worldand#8217;s three most important central banks: Ben Bernanke of the U.S. Federal Reserve, Mervyn King of the Bank of England, and Jean-Claude Trichet of the European Central Bank. Over the next five years, they and their fellow central bankers deployed trillions of dollars, pounds and euros to contain the waves of panic that threatened to bring down the global financial system, moving on a scale and with a speed that had no precedent.
Neil Irwinand#8217;s The Alchemists is a gripping account of the most intense exercise in economic crisis management weand#8217;ve ever seen, a poker game in which the stakes have run into the trillions of dollars. The book begins in, of all places, Stockholm, Sweden, in the seventeenth century, where central banking had its rocky birth, and then progresses through a brisk but dazzling tutorial on how the central banker came to exert such vast influence over our world, from its troubled beginnings to the Age of Greenspan, bringing the reader into the present with a marvelous handle on how these figures and institutions became what they are and#150; the possessors of extraordinary power over our collective fate.and#160; What they chose to do with those powers is the heart of the story Irwin tells.
Irwin covered the Fed and other central banks from the earliest days of the crisis for the Washington Post, enjoying privileged access to leading central bankers and people close to them. His account, based on reporting that took place in 27 cities in 11 countries, is the holistic, truly global story of the central bankersand#8217; role in the world economy we have been missing.and#160; It is a landmark reckoning with central bankers and their power, with the great financial crisis of our time, and with the history of the relationship between capitalism and the state. Definitive, revelatory, and riveting, The Alchemists shows us where money comes fromand#151;and where it may well be going.
Synopsis
The inside story of the worlds most powerful central bankersand the most intense exercise in economic crisis management the world has ever seen Suddenly, without warning, in August 2007, three men who had never been elected to public office found themselves the most powerful people in the world. They were the leaders of the worlds three most important central banks: Ben Bernanke of the U.S. Federal Reserve, Mervyn King of the Bank of England, and Jean-Claude Trichet of the European Central Bank. In The Alchemists, Washington Post reporter Neil Irwin presents the truly global story of the central bankers role in the world economy that we have been missing. Definitive, revelatory, and riveting, it shows us where money comes fromand where it may well be going.
Synopsis
The inside story of the worldand#8217;s most powerful central bankersand#151;and the most intense exercise in economic crisis management the world has ever seen Suddenly, without warning, in August 2007, three men who had never been elected to public office found themselves the most powerful people in the world. They were the leaders of the worldand#8217;s three most important central banks: Ben Bernanke of the U.S. Federal Reserve, Mervyn King of the Bank of England, and Jean-Claude Trichet of the European Central Bank. In The Alchemists, Washington Post reporter Neil Irwin presents the truly global story of the central bankersand#8217; role in the world economy that we have been missing. Definitive, revelatory, and riveting, it shows us where money comes fromand#151;and where it may well be going.
About the Author
Neil Irwin is a Washington Post columnist and economics editor of the Postand#8217;s Wonkblog web site. From 2007 to 2012, he led coverage of the global financial crisis, recession, and aftermath as the Postand#8217;s beat reporter covering the Federal Reserve and other central banks. He has an MBA from Columbia University, where he was a Knight-Bagehot Fellow in Economic and Business Journalism. Irwin appears regularly on television analyzing economic topics, including on MSNBC, CNBC, and the PBS Newshour. He lives in Washington.