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Carter interviewed Volcker for the job of Fed chairman and asked him what he would do to lower inflation (which had been persistently high since about the middle of the Nixon admin). Volcker told him he would immediately and significantly raise interest rates. This was in '79, there was an election the next year so Volcker figured that Carter wouldn't pick him. But Carter realized that Volcker was right and did pick Volcker who then went on to raise rates into the double digits (and people now complain about 5%). As predicted that tanked the economy in the election year, but in the long run it did the job of extinguishing the 70's inflation.


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