Portraits of influence
#15:
Paul Volcker ’49
As chairman of the Federal Reserve Board from 1979 to 1987, Volcker
pursued policies that ended the inflation crisis of the 1970s by tightening
the growth of the money supply rather than targeting interest rates. His
remedy worked — inflation fell from 13.6 percent in 1980 to 3.2
percent by 1983 — but it came with a high cost: a significant recession,
with unemployment levels that had not been seen since the Great Depression.
Read about others on the list. Click on the illustration below to read about each person. You can also select individuals by name in the index below.
By
Michael Witte ’66
Who’s who in the illustration: Numbers in parentheses
represent the rankings on the PAW panel’s list.
