This project took a year longer than I expected because Paul Volcker refused to retire from public life. It would have taken even longer without the help of students at the Stern School of Business, New York University, who analyzed the documentary evidence that underpins this book. Steven Chuang, Christopher Cramer, Benjamin Harding, Chris Hemmelgarn, Elizabeth Holt, Benjamin Loveland, and Rebecca Solow listened to excerpts from the Nixon tapes, read minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee meetings covering 1975 through 1987, reviewed congressional testimony, cataloged Volcker’s correspondence, and digested clippings from newspapers throughout the world. I would like to thank them for spending more energy on this project than I had a right to ask—usually with good cheer. Thanks also to Carol M. Arnold-Hamilton, research librarian at NYU’s Bobst Library, for her guidance with congressional testimony.
I supplemented the written record with interviews that added a personal perspective to Volcker’s public personae. I would like to thank the following for sharing their thoughts on the historical record and their insights about Paul Volcker that transcend the printed page: Stephen Axilrod, Peter Bakstansky, Ben Bernanke, Michael Bradfield, Jerry Corrigan, Joseph Coyne, Anthony Dowd, Tyler Gellasch, Austan Goolsbee, Lyle Gramley, Alan Greenspan, Henry Kaufman, Robert Kavesh, Rudolph Penner, Charles Schultze, Robert Solow, Neal Soss, Peter Sternlight, and Murray Weidenbaum.
Jimmy Volcker and Janice Volcker Zima, Paul’s children, offered especially sensitive insights into their father’s life. Anke Dening (Mrs. Paul Volcker since February 2010) coordinated my visits with precision and unearthed documents that her husband did not know existed.
Archivists at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Joseph Komljenovich and Julie Sager, were especially helpful in providing access to documents stored there from Volcker’s presidency of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (1975–1979) and to documents shipped there at Volcker’s request from his period at the Federal Reserve Board (1979–1987). Lawyers at the Federal Reserve Board raised obstacles to my seeing these documents, but Lynn Fox, a senior advisor to the board, smoothed the way. Joseph Pavel of the Federal Reserve Board’s public relations office conducted two very helpful tours of the physical premises.
I have asked a number of people to comb the manuscript for errors. I appreciate their help. Kenneth Garbade applied his electron microscope to remove sloppy analysis. Rudolph Penner checked for fiscal irresponsibility. Thomas Sargent enforced rational expectations. Lillian Silber eliminated mixed metaphors and dangling participles. Richard Sylla corrected historical inaccuracies. Paul Wachtel kept me on message. My agent, Eric Lupfer at William Morris Endeavor, and my editor, Peter Ginna at Bloomsbury Press, gave wise guidance (especially in the form of Peter’s squiggles) while softening the prose.
Special thanks to Ken and Lillian for listening to my complaints and responding with much-appreciated encouragement. And thanks to Paul Volcker for not meddling.