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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Paul Volcker
1st Chair of the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board
Incumbent
Assumed office  February 6, 2009[1]
President	Barack Obama
12th Chairman of the Federal Reserve
In office August 6, 1979 – August 11, 1987
President	Jimmy Carter Ronald Reagan
Preceded by	G. William Miller
Succeeded by	Alan Greenspan
5th President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York
In office May 2, 1975 – August 5, 1979
Preceded by	Alfred Hayes
Succeeded by	Anthony M. Solomon
Born	September 5, 1927 (1927-09-05) (age 81) Cape May, New Jersey
Political party	Democratic
Alma mater	Princeton University Harvard University London School of Economics
Profession	Economist

Paul Adolph Volcker (born September 5, 1927) is an American economist. He was the Chairman of the Federal Reserve under United States Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan (from August 1979 to August 1987). He is currently chairman of the newly formed Economic Recovery Advisory Board under President Barack Obama.^[2]

Contents 1 Early life 2 Career 2.1 Chairman of the Federal Reserve 3 Post-Fed 4 Personal life 5 References 6 Further reading 7 External links

[edit] Early life

Volcker was born in Cape May, New Jersey and grew up in Teaneck, New Jersey, where his father was the township's first Municipal manager. Volcker graduated from Teaneck High School.^[3]

Volcker's undergraduate education was at Princeton University; he graduated in 1949. He earned his M.A. in political economy from Harvard University's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and Graduate School of Public Administration in 1951 and then attended the London School of Economics from 1951 to 1952 as a Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Fellow.

Volcker has received honorary degrees from several educational institutions including: University of Notre Dame, Princeton University, Dartmouth College, New York University, University of Delaware^[4], Fairleigh Dickinson University, Bryant College, Adelphi University, Lamar University, Bates College (1989), Fairfield University (1994), Northwestern University (2004), Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (2005), Brown University (2006), and Georgetown University (2007).^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Career

In 1952 he joined the staff of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York as a full-time economist. He left that position in 1957 to become a financial economist with the Chase Manhattan Bank. In 1962 he joined the U.S. Treasury Department as director of financial analysis, and in 1963 he became deputy under-secretary for monetary affairs. He returned to Chase Manhattan Bank as vice president and director of planning in 1965.

From 1969 to 1974 Mr. Volcker served as under-secretary of the Treasury for international monetary affairs. He played an important role in the decisions surrounding the U.S. decision to suspend gold convertibility in 1971, which resulted in the collapse of the Bretton Woods system. In general he acted as a moderating influence on policy, advocating the pursuit of an international solution to monetary problems. After leaving the U.S. Treasury, he became president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York from 1975 to 1979, leaving to take up the chairmanship of the Federal Reserve in August 1979.

In 1975, Mr. Volcker also became a senior fellow in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.

[edit] Chairman of the Federal Reserve

Paul Volcker, a Democrat^[5], was appointed Chairman of the Federal Reserve in August 1979 by President Jimmy Carter and reappointed in 1983 by President Ronald Reagan.^[6]

Volcker's Fed is widely credited with ending the United States' stagflation crisis of the 1970s. Inflation, which peaked at 13.5% in 1981, was successfully lowered to 3.2% by 1983.

The federal funds rate, which had averaged 11.2% in 1979, was raised by Volcker to a peak of 20% in June 1981. The prime rate rose to 21.5% in '81 as well. [[1]]

These changes in policy contributed to the significant recession the U.S. economy experienced in the early 1980s, which included the highest unemployment levels since the Great Depression. Volcker's Fed also elicited the strongest political attacks and most wide-spread protests in the history of the Federal Reserve (unlike any protests experienced since 1922), due to the effects of the high interest rates on the construction and farming sectors, culminating in indebted farmers driving their tractors onto C Street NW and blockading the Eccles Building.^[7]

[edit] Post-Fed

After leaving the Federal Reserve in 1987, he became chairman of the prominent New York investment banking firm, J. Rothschild, Wolfensohn & Co., a corporate advisory and investment firm in New York, run by James D. Wolfensohn, who was later to become president of the World Bank.

In April 2004, the United Nations assigned Volcker to research possible corruption in the Iraqi Oil for Food program. In the report summarising its research, Volcker criticized Kojo Annan, son of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, and the Swiss company Cotecna Inspection SA, Kojo's employer, for trying to conceal their relationship. He concluded in his March 2005 report that "there is no evidence that the selection of Cotecna in 1998 was subject to improper influence of the Secretary General in the bidding or selection process".^[8] However, while Volcker did not implicate the Secretary General in the selection process, he did cast serious doubt on Kofi Annan, whose "management performance...fell short of the standards that the United Nations Organization should strive to maintain."^[9] Volcker was a director of the United Nations Association of the United States of America between 2000 and 2004, prior to his being appointed to the Independent Inquiry by Kofi Annan.

As of October 2006, he is the current Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the influential Washington-based financial advisory body, the Group of Thirty, and is a member of the Trilateral Commission. He has had a long association with the Rockefeller family, not only with his positions at Chase Bank and the Trilateral Commission, but also through membership of the Trust Committee of Rockefeller Group, Inc. (RGI), which he joined in 1987. That entity managed, at one time, the Rockefeller Center on behalf of the numerous members of the Rockefeller clan. He currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the International House in Manhattan, NY. He was a founding member of the Trilateral Commission.

In January 2008, he endorsed Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack Obama for President.^[10]

On April 8, 2008, he was the featured speaker at "The Economic Club of New York" and spoke about the issues and causes of the 2008 US recession, and critiqued the 2008 US financial system and the 2008 Federal Reserve policies.^[11]

He is today an economic advisor to President Barack Obama.^[12][13] Mr. Volcker will head the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board^[14].

[edit] Personal life

As a child, Volcker attended his mother's Lutheran church, while his father went to his Episcopal church. Volcker married Barbara Bahnson, the daughter of a physician, on September 11, 1954. She died on June 14, 1998, having suffered from lifelong diabetes, as well as rheumatoid arthritis. They had two children, Janice, a nurse and a Georgetown University graduate,^[15] and James, a research assistant and a New York University graduate^[16] who was born with cerebral palsy, as well as four grandchildren.^[17][18][19]

Volcker is an avid fly-fisherman, having recounted, "The greatest strategic error of my adult life was to take my wife to Maine on our honeymoon on a fly-fishing trip."^[20][21] Volcker is also known as "Tall Paul" for his height of 6 feet 7 inches (2.01 m),^[22][23] standing exactly a foot (30 cm) taller than his wife when they first met.^[17]

[edit] References

[edit] Further reading

• Paul Volcker: The Making of a Financial Legend, Joseph B. Treaster, New York: Wiley, 2004.

[edit] External links

• Official Bio
• The Independent Inquiry Committee into The United Nations' Oil-for-Food Program
• Time for Paul Volcker to Resign from the Oil-for-Food Program A critical article on the Heritage Foundation Website.
• Ubben Lecture at DePauw University

Political offices
Preceded by Alfred Hayes	President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York 1975–1979	Succeeded by Anthony M. Solomon
Preceded by G. William Miller	Chairman of the Federal Reserve 1979–1987	Succeeded by Alan Greenspan
Preceded by Position Created	Chair of the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board 2009-	Succeeded by Incumbent

v • d • e Barack Obama's Executive Office of the President Office Name Senior Adviser to the President   Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Affairs   Public Liaison Valerie Jarrett Senior Adviser to the President Pete Rouse Deputy White House Chief of Staff Jim Messina Staff Secretary Lisa Brown Personal Secretary Katie Johnson Personal Aide to the President Reggie Love Cabinet Secretary Chris Lu Chief of Staff to the First Lady Jackie Norris White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs White House Social Secretary   Special Assistant to the President Desirée Rogers Assistant to the President for Economic Policy   (Director of the White House National Economic Council) Lawrence Summers Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy   (Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council) Melody Barnes Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change Carol Browner Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget Rob Nabors Chair of the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board Paul Volcker Director of Speechwriting Jon Favreau Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs   (National Security Adviser) Jim Jones Director of Public Liaison Christina Tchen Director of White House Office of Health Reform Nancy DeParle Deputy Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change Heather Zichal Co-Chair of the President's Council of Advisers on Science and Technology Eric Lander Deputy White House Counsel with a Focus on Domestic Policy and Ethics Cassandra Butts Deputy Director of Legislative Affairs for the Senate Shawn Maher Special Assistant to the President   Director of Communications for the First Lady Camille Johnston Deputy Press Secretary for the First Lady Semonti Mustaphi White House Director of Presidential Personnel Don Gips Associate Counsel to the President Susan Sher Office Name Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs Phil Schiliro Deputy White House Chief of Staff Mona Sutphen Senior Adviser to the President David Axelrod White House Counsel Greg Craig Director of the White House Office of Political Affairs Patrick Gaspard Assistant to the President for Communications   (White House Director of Communications) Ellen Moran Deputy Assistant to the President for Communications   (Deputy White House Director of Communications) Dan Pfeiffer Deputy Chief of Staff to the First Lady Melissa Winter Deputy Chief of Staff to the First Lady David Medina Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy Gil Kerlikowske* Deputy Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy   (Deputy Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council) Heather Higginbottom White House Director of Scheduling and Advance Alyssa Mastromonaco Staff Director and Chief Economist of the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board   Member of the White House Council of Economic Advisers Austan Goolsbee Director of Intergovernmental Affairs Cecilia Muñoz Director of the White House Military Office Louis Caldera Chief of Staff to the Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Relations   Public Liaison Michael Strautmanis Deputy Director of White House Office of Health Reform Jeanne Lambrew Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality Nancy Sutley Assistant to the President for Science and Technology   (Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy)   Co-Chair of the President's Council of Advisers on Science and Technology John Holdren Co-Chair of the President's Council of Advisers on Science and Technology Harold Varmus Deputy Cabinet Secretary Liz Sears Smith Deputy Director of Legislative Affairs for the House of Representatives Dan Turton Press Secretary for the First Lady Katie McCormick Lelyveld Director of the Office of Management and Administration Bradley Kiley Chief Performance Officer/   Deputy Director for Management at the Office of Management and Budget TBA Director of White House Office of Urban Policy Adolfo Carrion Other Office Name Chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission Mary Schapiro Member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System Daniel Tarullo Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere   (Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) Jane Lubchenco Solicitor General Elena Kagan Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel Dawn Johnsen Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair Director of the Central Intelligence Agency Leon Panetta Deputy Secretary of Defense William Lynn Office Name Chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission Gary Gensler Administrator of the Small Business Administration Karen Mills Deputy Attorney General David Ogden Associate Attorney General Tom Perrelli Surgeon General Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg Jacob Lew Special Assistant to the President Eugene Kang Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services William Corr * Although identified by sources to the press, selection awaits official announcement by the White House.

v • d • e Chairmen of the Federal Reserve Hamlin • Harding • Crissinger • Young • Meyer • Black • Eccles • McCabe • Martin • Burns • Miller • Volcker • Greenspan • Bernanke