Would you trust these guys with your money?

[jmo]

Paul Volker: Paul Volcker, was appointed Chairman of the Federal Reserve in August 1979 by President Jimmy Carter and reappointed in 1983 by President Ronald Reagan.

 

Volcker's Fed is widely credited with ending the United States' stagflation crisis of the 1970s. Inflation, which peaked at 13.5% in 1981, was successfully lowered to 3.2% by 1983.

 

The federal funds rate, which had averaged 11.2% in 1979, was raised by Volcker to a peak of 20% in June 1981. The prime rate rose to 21.5% in '81 as well.

 

These changes in policy contributed to the significant recession the U.S. economy experienced in the early 1980s, which included the highest unemployment levels since the Great Depression. Volcker's Fed also elicited the strongest political attacks and most wide-spread protests in the history of the Federal Reserve (unlike any protests experienced since 1922), due to the effects of the high interest rates on the construction and farming sectors, culminating in indebted farmers driving their tractors onto C Street NW and blockading the Eccles Building.

 

Austan Goolsbee: In a 2007 Times article, Goolsbee wrote in opposition to mortgage "regulations" President Obama later blamed "deregulation" (which Goolsbee championed) for causing the subprime mortgage crisis.

 

These two men hold the top two positions on President Obama's Economic recovery advisory board.

[tvashtarkatena]

Sounds like they know what not to do.