No Fed chairman before or since was slower to cut extremely high rates mid-recession than Burns. When Volcker fans talk about Burns' wimpy policies of "the late seventies" that wasn't Burns. They are either referring to G. William Miller who was chairman from March 1978 to August 1979 (but pushed the funds rate well above 10%) or, more accurately, to Paul Volcker in 1980.
Volcker cut the funds faster and deeper than anyone before or since in 1980-- from over 18% to 9% in 3 or 4 months. Volcker eventually cut by 10 percentage points again from January 1981 to December 1982, but then put fed funds back up again in 1983 for reasons nobody can fathom.
No Fed chairman before or since was slower to cut extremely high rates mid-recession than Burns. When Volcker fans talk about Burns' wimpy policies of "the late seventies" that wasn't Burns. They are either referring to G. William Miller who was chairman from March 1978 to August 1979 (but pushed the funds rate well above 10%) or, more accurately, to Paul Volcker in 1980.
Volcker cut the funds faster and deeper than anyone before or since in 1980-- from over 18% to 9% in 3 or 4 months. Volcker eventually cut by 10 percentage points again from January 1981 to December 1982, but then put fed funds back up again in 1983 for reasons nobody can fathom.
https://twitter.com/AlanReynoldsEcn/status/1648426882327621634
Thanks for the read Tarric 👍