Volcker Tapped for Advisory Role

Wall Street Journal ^ | Jonathan Weisman

[MissCalico]

x-Fed Chief to Lead New Economic Panel of Outside Experts Who Will Brief Obama

President-elect Barack Obama appointed former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker on Wednesday to be the chairman of a new White House advisory board tasked with helping to lift the nation from recession and stabilize financial markets.

University of Chicago economist Austan Goolsbee, one of Mr. Obama's longest-serving policy advisers, will serve as the board's staff director, along with his duties as a member of the White House Council of Economic Advisers. Members of the panel will be drawn from a cross-section of citizens outside the government, chosen for their independence and nonpartisanship.

[MissCalico]

From wikipedia...

Chairman of the Federal Reserve

Paul Volcker, a Democrat[2], was appointed Chairman of the Federal Reserve in August 1979 by President Jimmy Carter and reappointed in 1983 by President Ronald Reagan.[3] Volcker's Fed is widely credited with ending the United States' stagflation crisis of the 1970s by limiting the growth of the money supply, abandoning the previous policy of targeting interest rates. Inflation, which peaked at 13.5% in 1981, was successfully lowered to 3.2% by 1983. [1] However, the change 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, and 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.[4]

[rom]

Now that’s Change!

[Boiling Pots]

Change? Not so much

[Frantzie]

Volcker is pretty smart but he is a World Bank & CFR guy.

[Sacajaweau]

Volker is married to who?

[HappyinAZ]

he’s a very bright guy and has been through the learning curve....we need every good mind engaged in this debate. A good appointment.

[adorno]

Volcker Tapped for Advisory Role

It's back to the future.

Lessons not learned means that we're doomed to repeating those chapters of history.

Let's hope that one of those chapters, the election of Reagan, is also repeated.

We don't have a Reagan in sight, but perhaps a Palin?

[MissCalico]

Volker is married to who?

Who?

[Moonman62]

It was Reagan that ended up making Volcker look like a genius. Not the other way around. A Volcker did was cause a nasty recession.

Volcker was also on the committee that recommended wage and price controls to Nixon.

[rhombus]

Volker is married to who?

To whom is Volker married?

[Revolting cat!]

Is Whom married to Volcker?

[Sacajaweau]

Yeh, but in this day and age, I’m still smarter than a 5th grader.

[Toddsterpatriot]

Volcker, “The economy is moving. Shoot it again, just to be sure”.

[lonevoice]

According to wikipedia, he was married in 1954 to Barbara Bahnson, the daughter of a physician. She died in 1998 and Volcker hasn’t remarried.

[Lazamataz]

I agree with you. I don't like Democrats, and I'm VERY AntiBama, but this was a reasonably good appointment -- mostly because Volcker is unlikely to repeat the mistakes he made last time.

Hard experience and all.

[Lazamataz]

Volker is married to who?

Well, he likes them, but I wouldn't call it 'married'.

[savedbygrace]

His wife was Barbara Marie Bahnson. They married in 1954, and she died in 1998.

[tomnbeverly]

Obama is becoming Bush third term...

Liberals soon to see all their socialist dreams dashed...

[Lazamataz]

Volker is married to who?

Horton Hears a Married To Hoo.

[rom]

Funny how no one is talking about the Failed Policies of the last 8 years when talking about Obama’s appointments.

Teehee.

[HappyinAZ]

we’re on the same page...I’m VERY concerned that they’re just making it worse...so EVERYBODY with even 1/2 of an economic clue...had better be working on this.

[NonValueAdded]

Change, eh? Bah! Can anyone name ONE thing the O-child has done that would even remotely qualify as innovative?

[M203M4]

A few decent choices so far. Volcker is very good (the Democrat-Party equivalent of the Souter nomination - Reagan kept him on after his appointment by Jimmah), but it is unfortunate his role is one without teeth. Interest-rate targeting always was and still is a fraud. He brought America temporarily back on a path toward sane monetary policy - there was some initial pain, but the real growth in the economy after the (necessary) recession resulted in the greatest increase in the standard of living, for rich and for poor, the world has ever seen. It was beautiful to see economics trump politics.

Regardless, the kos kids and DUers must have exploding head syndrome right about now.

[gitmogrunt]

Volcker? Is he the one that's too old?....or was that Mcwhat's his name?

I keep getting confused with the rosey picture CNN is painting.

[Moonman62]

Volcker, “The economy is moving. Shoot it again, just to be sure”.

LOL. You are making that up ...................... aren't you?

This is a central bankers ideal economy. It isn't growing, unemployment is going up, the government is going to borrow an extra trillion for some demand side stimulus, and there's no inflation.

[politicket]

"If you have a closely integrated world economy with free trade and free movements of capital, the logical complement of that is a global currency," -Paul volker, Business Week March 19.

"My sense is that if we are to have a truly globalized economy, with free movement of goods, services and capital, a world currency makes sense," Volker said. "That would be a world in which the objectives of growth, economic efficiency and stability can best be reconciled." - Paul Volker WSJ 2000

[Deo volente]

I've always thought of Volcker as the anti-Greenspan, and that's not a bad thing to be in today's economic environment.
Eventually, interest rates will have to be raised in order to slow down the runaway inflation that will result from all these trillions of dollars floating around.

The strengthening of the dollar that we're seeing right now is temporary. The inflation piper will have to be paid sooner or later.

[politicket]

Oops...I mean Volcker...not Volker.

[Toddsterpatriot]

LOL. You are making that up ...................... aren't you?

His feelings, not his words.

[brydic1]

I give Volker credit as did Reagan for bringing the Carter inflation period to an end setting the stage for real prosperity. He did it by imposing 15% to 20% interest rates. Perhaps, Obama will use him in an effort to combat the inevitable inflation that will exist in the next years with this tremendous money creation that is going on at present. I can not see Obama really letting Volker use the cures that Reagan permitted him to use. The resulting unemployment and financial upset will be tremendous, so I don't think any politician except one like Reagan (and there are no more Reagans) would permit the pain of combating the extreme inflation that we will have.

[NormsRevenge]

Volcker is pretty smart but he is a World Bank & CFR guy.

I don’t think he’s smarter than a 5th grader tho. ;-)

Volcker is Trilateralist as well .. appointed by Carter to boot.

Yup, change IS gooood.

[wardaddy]

Volker ended the recession of the late 70s caused mostly by high oil prices...sorta like this one without housing bust

He did not create it.

That quote is a perfect example of the flaws in Wikipedia and the steady editorializing battles there.

[misterrob]

Post inflationary times result in bad recessions. You have to choke off the money supply to get inflation under control.

[wardaddy]

Volker was very instrumental in ending the very high inflation....and Reagan and his team knew that which is why they kept him.

My memories of the team anyhow.

[NormsRevenge]

He did a real bang-up job investigating the UN Oil-for-Food Tempest in a ricepot scandal too.

[Arkinsaw]

Volcker combined with Reagan to burn stagflation out of the economy and set the stage for the Reagan expansion. Stagflation needed to be burned out very badly. Volcker set the policy and Reagan had the cojones to back him up and take the flack for it for a couple of years.

They both took huge, huge, huge, amounts of flack for it. They were roasted and flayed by Democrats/Liberals. But we ended up with a bad recession for a year or so and then a much better economic weather environment for growth.

I will criticize Obama when he does bad things. But I am not going to try to cast every single thing he does in the worst possible light or criticize him for every single thing he does no matter what it is.

If you criticize him for every little thing you become a moonbat carper who cries wolf, just like our opponents, and nobody believes you when the real bad thing is proposed. There will be PLENTY of bad stuff to carp on. Save your criticism for the real bad things where we will need to be paid attention to.

Having Volcker advising is not that bad of a thing.

[Arkinsaw]

Volcker is Trilateralist as well

They pretty much all are on both sides.

[MissCalico]

That quote is a perfect example of the flaws in Wikipedia and the steady editorializing battles there.

I know but I got worried while watching the live coverage of the press conference and resorted to a quick look-up.

Obama got combative with the one reporter (he accidentally called on) who asked a tough question. All the rest were softballs like the question about his Christmas shopping. He wasn't even sure if some of the reporters he called on were in the room which exposed the lack of authentic spontaneity to the set-up. He's very thin-skinned and interrupted the *errant" journalist two times before he could even get his question out and tried and failed to make a joke out of it.

I do feel a bit better after reading so many endorsements of Volcker and appreciate any excuse to take a break from worrying for the holidays.

[tomnbeverly]

How could you question the Messiah... its blasphemy in their circles. Its just funny to watch...

[b4its2late]

With these appointments, it’s like Obama threw a huge dredge into the river in Ohio that burns on its own.

[MissCalico]

Moonbat?

sniff

:'(

[wardaddy]

Having Volcker advising is not that bad of a thing

I agree, I was in B-school in 1979-80 and remember my teachers thought Volker was doing exactly the Castor Oil treatment needed at the time...

[BlackjackPershing]

Change finds its roots in ‘Peanut’ Carter. Good grief!

[kenavi]

"Volcker is Trilateralist as well."

They pretty much all are on both sides.

Shouldn't that be, "three" sides?

[Abathar]

Isn’t this the same guy who they chose to do the oil for food investigation that let Koffi off and blamed some of it on his son?

[BlackjackPershing]

I think so now that you mention it.

[wolfcreek]

And he did a wonderful job prosecuting/investigating the UN Oil for Food fiasco.

[wolfcreek]

He’s part of the problem. Who do you think caused all of this economic woe? (and every downturn since the Fed was established)

CFR/Trilates/bank trust people like Volcker.

Obama is just a puppet. Thank God

[wolfcreek]

Yes and the son got off too.

[wolfcreek]

Obama appointees, Tim Geithner and Larry Summers were invitees to the 2008 Bilderberg Conference.