![The Cult of the Expert – and How It Collapsed](/summary-img/28398-JMJ87HOO.jpg?h=M&b=0)
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In September 2008, former US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke advised then US president George W. Bush that stabilizing the tottering insurance behemoth AIG would cost $85 billion. When a member of Congress asked Bernanke if he had that money, he responded that, as Fed chairman, he could summon almost any amount of money into existence. It would merely require the signatures of several other Fed experts. How do unelected individuals become so powerful? Sebastian Mallaby, British journalist and biographer of former Fed chairman Alan Greenspan, explains the rise – and the fall – of the “cult of the expert” in politics. getAbstract recommends Mallaby’s sophisticated account to anyone curious about the past and the future of the role of experts in government.
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About the Author
Sebastian Mallaby, author of The Man Who Knew, is a senior fellow at the US-based Council on Foreign Relations.
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