Volcker, Paul

Former chairman of the board of governors of the Federal Reserve System from 1979 to 1987. While he was chairman, Volcker combated inflation by pursuing a restrictive monetary policy; a high level of unemployment and a stagnant economy made it necessary to increase monetary growth in the mid-1980s. Before serving on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, Volcker was an undersecretary in the U.S. Treasury from 1969 to 1974 and was president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank from 1975 to 1979. After leaving the Federal Reserve Board, Volcker led a panel in 1999 that investigated the Swiss banks’ handling of the accounts held by Holocaust victims. The panel was critical of the banks, but didn’t suggest any changes to a settlement that had been reached a year earlier. He wrote, along with Japanese finance official Toyoo Gyohten, Changing Fortunes: The World’s Money and the Threat to American Leadership, which was published in 1992.