I think Volcker's main objective was to kill labor and crush the middle class, and while labor was already trending down when he took over, he finished the job quite effectively. Private sector Union agitation dropped tremendously during his reign, and was pretty much non-existent by the late 80s. Like there was even concern among the Reagan admin that he was going too far with the interest rates, but he pretty much admitted that labor needed to be psychologically destroyed.
The bullshit about hot/cold economy is just a complete farce. Anytime shit gets a little too rough inflation wise, it's never about logical govt input into stimulating the country's output, ie maybe infrastructure spending, but almost always about killing off labor that's getting a little too uppity
It's always a mystery what the people in power actually believe versus what they are willing to say in public. Especially the people who run the Fed, since the structure's governing it are so poorly understood by the average citizen in the first place, and the fact that the citizens have fuck-all controlling mechanisms to ensure good governance.
I think Volcker's main objective was to kill labor and crush the middle class, and while labor was already trending down when he took over, he finished the job quite effectively. Private sector Union agitation dropped tremendously during his reign, and was pretty much non-existent by the late 80s. Like there was even concern among the Reagan admin that he was going too far with the interest rates, but he pretty much admitted that labor needed to be psychologically destroyed.
The bullshit about hot/cold economy is just a complete farce. Anytime shit gets a little too rough inflation wise, it's never about logical govt input into stimulating the country's output, ie maybe infrastructure spending, but almost always about killing off labor that's getting a little too uppity
It's always a mystery what the people in power actually believe versus what they are willing to say in public. Especially the people who run the Fed, since the structure's governing it are so poorly understood by the average citizen in the first place, and the fact that the citizens have fuck-all controlling mechanisms to ensure good governance.