Getting Off Track

cogent, thorough and compelling Taylor sums up his argument in his subtitle: How Government Actions and Interventions Caused, Prolonged and Worsened the Financial Crisis. Take a moment to absorb that. Although we're told every day that the crisis arose from failures in the free markets that it represents a crisis of capitalism itself--an eminent economist has now stepped forward to say, in effect, "Nonsense." The markets didn't fail, Taylor argues, the government did.

- Peter Robinson, What Caused the Crisis? "Forbes.com""

Big problems confront us, and responses of immense size are on the table. We desperately need a solid and fact-based analysis so that we get the prescription right. John Taylor provides just that. A must-read for everyone involved.
- George Shultz, former secretary of Treasury, State, and Labor and Budget Director

If Milton Friedman and I had written as persuasive an analysis as this, one year rather than 30 years after the Great Depression began, the United States might have had a typical recession rather than the greatest downturn in history.
- Anna Schwartz, author, with Milton Friedman, of "The Great Contraction, 1929 1933""

John Taylor is one of the very few who points out the errors that the Federal Reserve made during this difficult period and also shows how they could avoid them. Members of Congress should read this book instead of looking for scapegoats in the wrong places.
- Allan Meltzer, author of "The History of the Federal Reserve"

...cogent, thorough and compelling...Taylor sums up his argument in his subtitle: How Government Actions and Interventions Caused, Prolonged and Worsened the Financial Crisis. Take a moment to absorb that. Although we're told every day that the crisis arose from failures in the free markets--that it represents a crisis of capitalism itself--an eminent economist has now stepped forward to say, in effect, "Nonsense." The markets didn't fail, Taylor argues, the government did.

- Peter Robinson, What Caused the Crisis? "Forbes.com"

This short volume does a masterful job of tracking the stunning financial market and macroeconomic events of 2007 and 2008, and it provides an organizing framework that will enable the specialist and novice alike to examine these events in a coherent setting.

- James Poterba, Mitsui Professor of Economics at MIT and President and CEO of the National Bureau of Economic Research