Volcker
The Triumph of Persistence
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- $28.99
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- $28.99
Publisher Description
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 centerpiece Wall Street regulation the Volcker Rule. Volcker's career demonstrated that a determined central banker can prevail over economic turmoil-so long as he can resist relentless political pressure. His resolve and independent thinking-sorely tested by Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, and Ronald Reagan-laid the foundation for a generation of economic stability. Indeed, William L. Silber argues, it was only Volcker's toughness on monetary policy that "forced Reagan to be Reagan" and to rein in America's deficit.
Noted scholar and finance expert Silber draws on hours of candid personal interviews and complete access to Volcker's personal papers to render dramatic behind-the-scenes accounts from Volcker's career at the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve: secret negotiations with European ministers; confrontations with the White House; crisis conferences with Wall Street titans, and even tense boardroom rebellions within the Fed itself. Filled with frank commentary from Volcker himself-including why he was personally irked with the "Volcker Rule" label-this will be the definitive account of Volcker's indispensable role in American economic history.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This admiring biography leaves no doubt about Silber's view that the world owes Paul Volcker a great debt. As Federal Reserve Board chairman from 1979 to 1987, "Volcker did nothing less than restore the reputation of an American financial system on the verge of collapse." Silber (When Washington Shut Down Wall Street), a professor of finance at NYU's Stern School of Business, spent hundreds of hours interviewing his subject and ably charts Volcker's career, from his early years as an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank and the Treasury Department in the 1950s and 1960s to becoming undersecretary of the Treasury under Nixon. In the early 1970s, Volcker oversaw the precarious shift from a dollar backed by the gold standard to a currency by fiat, which ushered in the era of floating currency exchange rates and launched the modern financial era. Though Silber lucidly explains this process, a prior understanding of economics would aid a casual reader. While it's difficult to enliven some of this material, Silber gamely tries, and sometimes resorts to clunky sports analogies. It's a measure of Volcker's lasting influence that current financial reforms include a restriction on banks' ability to engage in speculative trading, known as the Volcker Rule, a fitting third act for a lifelong government servant who "laid the foundation for restoring fiscal integrity in America."
