Alan Blinder's monetary history of the United States

[William Meyer]

Been reading Alan Blinder's monetary and financial history of the United states.  Just got into the Reagan years and while well written, feels a bit light on things like gold, treasury notes, silver certificates , financial plumbing and international fund flows etc.  Mostly an academic research discussion so far.   But it does explain well the current state of monetary policy debate - namely the obsession of labeling every inflationary episode we experience as being a 'supply shock'.  In brief, high prices of inputs (oil) keep output below equilibrium so the economy is already hurting, to raise rates risks hurting it more.  And that leaves monetary policy to do what exactly?  Rein in excess demand from overly generous union contracts?  That stopped being relevant decades ago.