Can you offer a good book on that coherently explains US federal monetary policy? You have a good handle on what's going on. I still don't quite understand it.
No, you have to read maybe 10+ books at a minimum plus a lot of other stuff.
I would start from federalreserve.gov and go from there. There's also an educational site set up by the Fed here: www.federalreserveeducation.org/about-the-fed/structure-and-functions/
Once you get it straight from the horse, you can go out from there. When people ask me this question I start there, because it has official authority and is usually more direct than other more opinionated sources. If you talk about it from sources other than the Fed most of the time you'll get a lot of incredulity because the system is counter-intuitive.
I second the EconTalk podcasts. I've been listening to them for over 5 years. They are hour long interviews on a wide variety of subjects. The host, Russ Roberts, does a great job of letting the guest get his or her point across even when you suspect he disagrees. The tone is polite and non-confrontational. It is more about accurately presenting a position than debating, although there is some point/counter-point.
I cannot exaggerate how much I've learned from EconTalk. Plus, there's even an episode with Paul Graham about ycombinator and startups:
