Volcker broke the 70's stagflation cycle by jacking up interest rates during a period of economic expansion to strengthen the dollar. He's a dollar-worshipper who understands how to do something that neither political party ever wants - tell the economy "NO! BAD DOG! STOP CREATING CREDIT!"

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[en.wikipedia.org]

Volcker's Fed is widely credited with ending the United States' stagflation crisis of the 1970s by limiting the growth of the money supply, abandoning the previous policy of targeting interest rates. Inflation, which peaked at 13.5% in 1981, was successfully lowered to 3.2% by 1983. [1]

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And one more point, because I'm totally mystified at your commentary:

[en.wikipedia.org]

"Stagflation is an economic situation in which inflation and economic stagnation occur simultaneously and remain unchecked for a period of time."

And here's a passage that should sound very familiar:

"Both types of explanations are offered in analyses of the global stagflation of the 1970s: it began with a huge rise in oil prices, but then continued as central banks used excessively stimulative monetary policy to counteract the resulting recession, causing a runaway wage-price spiral.[10]"

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I was young in the 1970s and am willing to listen to a carefully-argued contrarian view on Volcker. Do you have one?

(The notion that Volcker's monetarist prescriptions were politically troublesome doesn't count -- everyone accepts that they were, it's what was unique about that moment in American economic history. Now, if you say they were politically misguided...well, okay, I'll listen.)

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I am. Volcker needs to be the guy telling us to jack up interest rates this time next year.

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