By February 2020, the U.S. economic expansion had become the longest on record. Unemployment was plumbing half-century lows. Stock markets soared to new highs. One month later, the public health battle against a deadly virus had pushed the economy into the equivalent of a medically induced coma. America's workplaces--offices, shops, malls, and factories--shuttered. Many of the nation's largest employers and tens of thousands of small businesses faced ruin. Over 22 million American jobs were lost. The extreme uncertainty led to some of the largest daily drops ever in the stock market. Nick Timiraos, the Wall Street Journal's chief economics correspondent, draws on extensive interviews to detail the tense meetings, late night phone calls, and crucial video conferences behind the largest, swiftest U.S. economic policy response since World War II. Trillion Dollar Triage goes inside the Federal Reserve, one of the country's most important and least understood institutions, to chronicle how its plainspoken chairman, Jay Powell, unleashed an unprecedented monetary barrage to keep the economy on life support. With the bleeding stemmed, the Fed faced a new challenge: How to nurture a recovery without unleashing an inflation-fueling, bubble-blowing money bomb?

Hawks, doves, and jaybird -- "This federal reserve place" -- "We would treat him pretty ugly" -- The king of debt -- Hot seat -- "Boneheads" -- Into the emergency room -- Meltdown -- Turning the knobs to 11 -- Bagehot on steroids -- Money almost stops -- "Get in the boats and go" -- Fate and history -- Uncle Sam's club -- Twist of "FAIT" -- Peril and possibility -- The inflation surprise -- Triage and its aftereffects.