Paul A. Volcker > Quotes

“Did I realize at the time how high interest rates might go before we could claim success? No. From today’s vantage point, was there a better path? Not to my knowledge—not then or now.”
― Paul A. Volcker, Keeping At It: The Quest for Sound Money and Good Government

“There is a prudent maxim of the economic forecaster's trade that is too often ignored: pick a number or pick a date, but never both.”
― Paul A. Volcker, Changing Fortunes: The World's Money and the Threat to American Leadership

“Baker delivered a message: “The president is ordering you not to raise interest rates before the election.” I was stunned. Not only was the president clearly overstepping his authority by giving an order to the Fed, but also it was disconcerting because I wasn’t planning tighter monetary policy at the time.”
― Paul A. Volcker, Keeping At It: The Quest for Sound Money and Good Government

“If you don't understand what the professor is saying, don't dismiss the possibility that he might be wrong.”
― Paul A. Volcker, Changing Fortunes: The World's Money and the Threat to American Leadership

“The 1980s have been described as the “lost decade” for Latin America. My view is different: it was one of lost opportunities.”
― Paul A. Volcker, Keeping At It: The Quest for Sound Money and Good Government

“No such luck. Long-term rates mirrored the short-term rise. And the short rates soon reached our so-called upper limit. After some discussion, we didn’t intervene. Neither did we when subsequent upper limits, set in each meeting, were breached. The rate on three-month Treasury bills eventually exceeded 17 percent, the commercial bank prime lending rate peaked at 21.5 percent, and, most sensitively, mortgage rates surpassed 18 percent. Those rates had never been seen before in our financial history.”
― Paul Volcker, Keeping At It: The Quest for Sound Money and Good Government

“That “temporary” arrangement essentially remains in place fifty years later. The world has been operating without an agreed monetary standard, with varying degrees of “floating” and “fixing,” and with the dollar still the global reserve currency.”
― Paul Volcker, Keeping At It: The Quest for Sound Money and Good Government