Financial Times/Merryn Somerset Webb/9-20-2022
“It is hard not to feel sorry for Arthur Burns, chair of the US Federal Reserve, when you look back at the unpleasant inflationary years of the 1970s. He clearly felt his failure deeply (and it was a failure — inflation ran at an average of 6.5 per cent a year during his tenure) if the title of a lecture he gave in 1979 in Belgrade is anything to go by. He called it ‘The Anguish of Central Banking.’”
USAGOLD note: Webb says success as a central banker in slaying the inflation beast depends more on luck than skill. Volcker had it in the 1980s, but will Powell in the 2020s? Webb has her doubts.
