Paul Volker was an economist who lived from 1927 to 2019. He made a lot of achievements during his lifetime. He is most remembered for his work as Fed chair between 1979 and 1987. During this time he was largely fighting inflation.
He became famous as an inflation tamer, and some people referred to him as a full-fledged inflation warrior. He led the Fed in a brutal war against inflation. He was responsible for defeating the great inflation of 1970s.
Secondly, he is to blame for causing that inflation in the first place. He presided over the program of making gold not convertible to US dollars. This program was announced by President Nixon of United States of America in 1971.
He used various methods such as freeze the wage-price on the US economy and of course slapped a 10% on all imports into the United States of America.
Volcker real hated the gold standard and as a result he wanted to have it stopped. He replaced with a fixed-exchange system. This is the system that we have today where the US dollar rules supreme. This is also associated with the prominent role of the United States in the international arena.
Paul Volker hated the gold standard and hence he never wanted the price of gold to rise because this will give power to gold producing countries such as South Africa and Soviet Union. That way the status of the United States would be affected.
Paul Volker was a chain smoker who always was dedicated towards good governance.
Volker Timeline:
1949: Wrote a Thesis at Princeton University
1969 – 1974: Volker became the undersecretary of Treasury for International Monetary Affairs
1975: President of Federal Reserve of New York
1979 – 1987: Chairman Federal Reserve Board
2008: Economic Advisor to President Obama after the 2008 financial crisis;
2018: Wrote a memoir titled Keeping At It: The Quest for Sound Money and Good Government.
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