Keeping at it volcker

At least the military still has all the respect. “Respect for government, respect for the Supreme Court, respect for the president, it’s all gone,” he said. Volcker - filling shelves and piled high on virtually every flat surface - as did pink pages of The Financial Times, folded into origami.

And if he had seemed lethargic when I arrived, he turned lively in his laments: “We’re in a hell of a mess in every direction,” he said. Volcker wants to talk about the country, the economy and the government. Long one of finance’s wise men, he has been sick for several months.īut he would rather not talk about himself. Volcker, 91, the former Federal Reserve chairman, who came to prominence after he used shockingly high interest rates to help end the runaway inflation of the late 1970s and early ’80s. His lanky 6-foot-7 frame extended beyond the end of the chair’s leg rest. Paul Volcker, wearing a blue sweatsuit and black dress socks, stretched out on a recliner in the den of his Upper East Side apartment on a Sunday afternoon.