Central Banking 101

I’ll admit: I approached *Central Banking 101* expecting another sleepy primer on interest rates. Instead, I got a masterclass in how power *really* works in global finance—delivered with the energy of a true believer who’s also a heretic. Wang’s insider status lets him drop bombs like, ‘The Fed doesn’t control inflation; it just hopes you *think* it does,’ and Anciaux’s narration sells every line like a conspiracy theorist who’s seen the receipts. His pacing is impeccable: slow enough to let the absurdity of ‘creating $4 trillion overnight’ sink in, but never plodding. The production is clean, though I’d have loved a touch more dynamic range—some of the darker humor (like the bit about Congress ‘outsourcing monetary policy to unelected bankers’) could’ve used a wink in the delivery. The book’s strength—and occasional weakness—is its relentless focus on *mechanics* over morality. Wang explains *how* the Fed bails out Wall Street, but sidesteps whether it *should*, which left me craving a counterpoint. And while the 2020 pandemic response sections are gripping, the final chapter rushes through the ‘what now?’ questions, as if Wang ran out of patience for speculation. Still, for anyone who’s ever wondered why their mortgage rate moves when some guy in a suit mutters ‘dot plot,’ this is the Rosetta Stone. Just don’t listen while driving—you *will* pause to Google ‘reverse repo facility’ mid-sentence.