Volcker

Paul A. Volcker (1927-) is an economist who has served in several prominent positions in the federal government. Born in Cape May, NJ, Volcker attended Princeton University for his undergraduate education, graduating summa cum laude in 1949. He went on to earn a master's degree in political economy and government from Harvard University in 1951, then studied at the London School of Economics in 1951-1952 under the Rotary Foundation's Ambassadorial Scholarships program.

Volcker began his career in government service in 1952 as an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Five years later, in 1957, he left the position to join the private sector, taking a job at Chase Manhattan Bank. Volcker first worked for the Treasury Department in 1962 as the director of the Office of Financial Analysis, and the following year became the deputy undersecretary for monetary affairs. He resumed work in the private sector once more in 1965, returning to Chase Manhattan Bank as vice president and director of planning.

Volcker served as undersecretary of the Treasury for international monetary affairs from 1969-1974. In this capacity, Volcker was influential in the Nixon administration's economic policy changes of August 1971. These policy changes, particularly the suspension of the U.S. dollar's convertibility to gold and a short-term freeze on wages and prices, temporarily halted inflation and increased the rates of employment and productivity in the United States. After leaving the Treasury Department, Volcker returned to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York from 1975-1979 to serve as its president.

In August 1979, Jimmy Carter appointed Volcker as chairman of the Board of Governors for the Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve under Volcker's leadership is credited with ending the inflation of the 1970s through aggressive control of the money supply, leading to historically high interest rates. By the end his term, the inflation process had ended, giving rise to years of stable growth. As chairman, Volcker also put more focus on the economic conditions in developing countries and prohibiting certain activities of commercial banks.

After leaving the Board of Governors in 1987, Volcker served as chair of the National Commission on Public Service. The following year, he became chairman of Wolfensohn and Co., a boutique international investment banking firm. Volcker was chairman of the Board of Trustees of the International Accounting Standards from 2000-2005.

In 1996, Volcker was asked by representatives of the Swiss and Jewish communities to head an effort to trace accounts of victims of Nazi persecution opened in Swiss banks before World War II, leading to substantial compensation for survivors and their progeny. In 2004, the Secretary General of the United Nations called upon Volcker to undertake an investigation of allegations of substantial corruption by participants in the U.N.'s Oil for Food program and within the U.N. itself. That successful investigation led to a further request by the president of the World Bank to lead a review of the Bank's anti-corruption program, prompting substantial reforms in Bank procedures.

Volcker headed President Obama's Economic Recovery Advisory Board from 2009 to 2011. In this role, he crafted the "Volcker Rule," a provision to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010. The provision restricts banking institutions in the United States from conducting certain kinds of speculative investment activities.

Volcker was a senior fellow in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University for the 1974-1975 academic year. He is the coauthor of several books. For many years he chaired the Trilateral Commission and the "Group of 30," consisting of leading central bankers, other financial officials, and financial scholars.