Keeping At It: The Quest for Sound Money and Good Government
“I just read Volcker's book. If you haven't read it, it's pretty great, his biography.”
Why it is worth your time
Keeping At It is Paul Volcker's 2018 memoir, written with the Bloomberg editor Christine Harper when Volcker was 91. Volcker was chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1979 to 1987 and broke the inflation of the 1970s by pushing interest rates near 20 percent, at the cost of a deep recession. The book also covers his years at the Treasury during the end of the gold standard in 1971, and his argument for sound money. Jason said on the podcast in July 2022 that he had just read it and that it was pretty great. The timing matters: the Fed was raising rates against the highest inflation in 40 years, and Volcker was the reference point. It suits readers who want the inflation fight from the man who ran it. The caveat is that the Washington Post called it 'not a barnburner' with a wonky first half, and the Atlantic noted there is not much of a personal nature in it.
