In Fed We Trust: Ben Bernanke’s War on the Great Panic, by David Wessel, is an insider view of the Federal Reserve during the great financial crisis, including how Ben Bernanke, Tim Geithner and Hank Paulson orchestrated the acquisition of Bear Stearns by JPMorgan, allowed the collapse of Lehman, facilitated the acquisition of Merrill Lynch by Bank of America, funded the survival of AIG, permitted the acquisition of Wachovia by Wells Fargo and much more. Wessel’s writing is terrific; he combines a complete fluency in monetary policy and Fed history with total insider access to the key principals and the confidence to critique the decisions of the world’s greatest economists and business leaders. The book is a great education on the basics of monetary policy and the expansion of Fed powers. But it also reads like a fast-moving novel; the story is genuinely fascinating. In addition, and somewhat unexpectedly, there is a ton of great advice for leadership during a difficult and fast-moving crisis. The book is available on barnesandnoble.com here.