关于美联储的最佳书籍：美联储不受约束
Lev Menand 认为美联储迷失了方向，主要是因为它一直在处理美国中央银行原定范围之外的项目。由于这种做法，梅南德认为美联储无意中扩大了这个国家的财富不平等。
在《美联储不受约束：危机时期的中央银行》（哥伦比亚全球报告系列的一部分）中，这位哥伦比亚大学法学副教授、纽约联邦储备银行前经济学家、巴拉克奥巴马总统领导下的财政部官员认为美联储经常承担国会应该处理的事情。一些例子：美联储在 2020 年的资产负债表上增加了 3 万亿美元，以避免在 COVID-19 大流行的头几个月发生金融恐慌，以及美联储对 2008 年危机的处理，以防止经济陷入衰退。
Menand 写道，美联储每次加紧行动，都会刺激非银行货币创造的更多增长。他指出，2008 年，非银行货币总计占美国货币供应量的 15 万亿美元，而传统银行存款为 7 万亿美元，实物现金为 1 万亿美元。
“今天，美联储不再只是通过管理银行系统（中央银行的工作）来管理货币供应，”梅南德写道。“它正在通过像紧急政府征信局或国家投资机构一样使用其资产负债表来应对持续的经济和金融危机——创造新的资金来支持金融公司、扩大金融市场以及投资于企业和市政当局。”
Best Book on the Fed: The Fed Unbound
Lev Menand thinks the Federal Reserve has lost its way, mainly because it’s been tackling projects outside of the U.S. central bank’s original scope. Because of that practice, Menand contends that the Fed has inadvertently expanded this country’s wealth inequality.
In The Fed Unbound: Central Banking in a Time of Crisis, which is part of the Columbia Global Reports series, this associate professor of law at Columbia University, former economist with the Federal Reserve of New York, and Treasury official under President Barack Obama believes that the Fed routinely takes on what Congress should be handling. Some examples: when the Fed added $3 trillion to its balance sheet in 2020 to avert a financial panic during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic and its handling of the 2008 crisis to keep the economy out of recession.
Each time the Fed steps up, writes Menand, it stimulates more growth in nonbank money creation. In 2008, he notes, nonbank money totaled $15 trillion of the U.S. money supply, compared to $7 trillion in traditional bank deposits and $1 trillion in physical cash.
“Today, the Fed is no longer just managing the money supply by administering the banking system [the central bank’s job],” Menand writes. “It is fighting persistent economic and financial crises by using its balance sheet like an emergency government credit bureau or national investment authority—creating new money to backstop financial firms, expand financial markets, and invest in businesses and municipalities.”