As president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and then as President Barack Obama’s secretary of the Treasury, Timothy F. Geithner helped the United States navigate the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, from boom to bust to rescue to recovery. In a candid, riveting, and historically illuminating memoir, he takes readers behind the scenes of the crisis, explaining the hard choices and politically unpalatable decisions he made to repair a broken financial system and prevent the collapse of the Main Street economy. This is the inside story of how a small group of policy makers—in a thick fog of uncertainty, with unimaginably high stakes—helped avoid a second depression but lost the American people doing it. Stress Test is also a valuable guide to how governments can better manage financial crises, because this one won’t be the last. Stress Test reveals a side of Secretary Geithner the public has never seen, starting with his childhood as an American abroad. He recounts his early days as a young Treasury official helping to fight the international financial crises of the 1990s, then describes what he saw, what he did, and what he missed at the New York Fed before the Wall Street boom went bust. He takes readers inside the room as the crisis began, intensified, and burned out of control, discussing the most controversial episodes of his tenures at the New York Fed and the Treasury, including the rescue of Bear Stearns; the harrowing weekend when Lehman Brothers failed; the searing crucible of the AIG rescue as well as the furor over the firm’s lavish bonuses; the battles inside the Obama administration over his widely criticized but ultimately successful plan to end the crisis; and the bracing fight for the most sweeping financial reforms in more than seventy years. Secretary Geithner also describes the aftershocks of the crisis, including the administration’s efforts to address high unemployment, a series of brutal political battles over deficits and debt, and the drama over Europe’s repeated flirtations with the economic abyss. Secretary Geithner is not a politician, but he has things to say about politics—the silliness, the nastiness, the toll it took on his family. But in the end, Stress Test is a hopeful story about public service. In this revealing memoir, Tim Geithner explains how America withstood the ultimate stress test of its political and financial systems.


提摩西．弗朗茲．蓋特納曾擔任紐約聯邦儲備銀行的總裁，也曾任巴拉克．歐巴馬總統的財政部長。從搶救經濟到振興經濟，蓋納特成功幫助美國脫離自大蕭條以來最嚴重的金融危機。本書為蓋納特的自傳，坦率直白，引人入勝，且極具歷史意義，他為讀者揭開美國經濟危機的內幕，說明每個困難的抉擇與政治上難以接受的決策背後，不單是為了修復受損的金融體系，更是為了防止實體經濟崩盤。本書帶領讀者一窺政府官員的決策過程，談論這一小群人如何在充滿不確定、高風險的氛圍下，協助美國逃過第二次經濟蕭條，卻同時失去了某些美國人的支持。本書是一本極具價值的指南，提供各國政府處理金融危機的建議，因為下一個金融危機隨時可能出現。本書更公開蓋特納部長不為人知的一面，談起蓋納特身為美國人，卻大半時間住在海外國家的童年生活。他在書中提到，年輕時在財政部任職經驗對後來打擊九零年代國際金融危機有很大的幫助；接著，蓋納特談起擔任紐約聯邦儲備銀行總裁時，在華爾街金融危機爆發前觀察到了什麼、對策為何、以及做出哪些錯誤的決斷。蓋納特更將讀者帶往金融危機爆發的最前線，讓讀者體會當時情勢緊張、失控的場面，探討在紐約聯邦儲備銀行總裁與美國財政部長任職期間，所遇到最具爭議的事件，其中包括解救貝爾斯登公司、雷曼兄弟破產的悲慘周末、救助 AIG 所面臨的嚴酷考驗、以及後續的花紅風波，談到歐巴馬執政時期的決策內幕，儘管蓋納特的決策飽受爭議，最終卻成功的中止危機，也寫到美國為了實施七十幾年來最巨幅的金融改革所面臨的種種困難。蓋特納更不忘描述金融危機後的餘波，包括歐巴馬政府為降低高失業率所做出的努力、政府為解決赤字與債務內部興起的政治鬥爭，也講到歐洲經濟幾度跌入谷底。蓋納特部長並不是一位政客，但對政治卻很有一套見解。他在本書除了談政治愚蠢、骯髒的一面，也談到政治對家人造成的傷害。儘管如此，讀者到頭來會發現，蓋納特筆下的公職仍舊處處可見希望。本書以自傳形式書寫，深具啟發意義，蓋納特利用此書和讀者解釋，美國是如何在這場壓力測試中，使其政治與金融體系通過最終試煉。