Paul Volcker: The Making of a Financial Legend
“This new biography of Paul Volcker…. Adds colour and personality to a figure who often came across to the general public as a ‘cold and arrogant numbers cruncher.’” (CFO Europe, July 2004)It may be hard to remember that the chairman of the Federal Reserve Board can be reviled as well as revered. But witness the tenure of Paul Volcker, Alan Greenspan's predecessor, whose tough economic policies halted the runaway inflation that staggered the American economy in the late 1970's and early 80's. Even so, Volcker's engineering of ever higher interest rates cost millions of Americans their jobs. (Embittered Democrats would include President Jimmy Carter among the victims.) In ''Paul Volcker: The Making of a Financial Legend,'' Joseph B. Treaster, a financial reporter for The New York Times, has written something of a mash note to the retired Fed chairman, a slim biography that lauds Volcker's steadfastness in applying the economic shock therapy that laid the groundwork for the boom years in the 1990's. Treaster offers little in the way of new policy history; William Greider's ''Secrets of the Temple'' (1988) provides a much more comprehensive and skeptical account of Volcker's tenure at the Fed. Where Treaster does break ground is in his personal portrait. Volcker could appear insensitive in public, but Treaster enters into his family life as well; particularly touching is Volcker's relationship with his son, who has cerebral palsy.Treaster's depiction of Volcker's honesty and resilience highlights some attributes that American policy makers should keep in mind as the Greenspan era draws to a close. ALEXANDRA STARR (New York Times Book Review, May 23, 2004)