Monday, November 12, 2018

Potted Plants and the New York Federal Reserve Bureaucracy



From Paul Volcker's new book, Keeping At It: The Quest for Sound Money and Good Government:
I soon learned that the [New York] Fed's formidable bureaucracy hadn't let up much since my early experience there. In the first few days, I asked my assistant to dispose of a large plant sitting just outside my office that appeared to be dying. A week or so later, I asked why it was still there. Her dispiriting answer: policy dictated that if I didn't have the plant, none of the officers could have one. It would have to be a group decision.
-RW 


2 comments:

  1. Volcker's 'quest' for sound money, in his own words: "I certainly was a major proponent of suspending gold convertibility, in fact the principal planner." http://www.nber.org/feldstein/Feldstein%20Volcker%20Interview.pdf

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    1. yes, Volcker seems pretty sound compared to recent Fed heads, but when you get down to it he was just another statist. Like saying JFK would feel comfortable in todays GOP.

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