VOLCKER: The Triumph of Persistence

 

 “Comes at the perfect time. Mr. Silber offers fascinating subplots and revelations along the way--not to mention a portrait of a tough and colorful man--but his main storyline concerns two of the most dramatic policy changes in economic history, one international, the other domestic. Mr. Volcker played a key role in both.” - JOGN B. TAYLOR | Wall Street Journal 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SYNOPSIS | Over the course of nearly half a century, five American presidents--three Democrats and two Republicans--have relied on the financial acumen, and the integrity, of Paul A. Volcker. During his tenure as chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, when he battled the Great Inflation of the 1970s, Volcker did nothing less than restore the reputation of an American financial system on the verge of collapse. After the 2008 financial meltdown, the nation turned again to Volcker to restore trust in a shaky financial system: President Obama would name his centrepiece Wall Street regulation the Volcker Rule.

This biography, based on one hundred hours of personal interviews with Paul Volcker, as well as on complete access to his personal papers, shows that a determined central banker can prevail over economic turmoil--so long as he can resist relentless political pressure. Volcker's resolve and independent thinking--sorely tested by Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, and Ronald Reagan--vanquished escalating inflation that Carter said promoted a "crisis of confidence in America." The narrative shows that it was only Volcker's toughness on monetary policy that "forced Reagan to be Reagan," which ultimately led Congress to rein in America's runaway deficit of the 1980s. Both monetary restraint and fiscal rectitude laid the foundation for a generation of economic stability--a lesson worth remembering in the second decade of the twenty-first century.