Credit Carter
12 September 2006
Editor, The Atlantic
Dear Editor:
One factual error mars Jonathan Rauch's otherwise commendable essay on the lamentable presidencies of Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, and George W. Bush ("Unwinding Bush," October). Credit for reining in inflation belongs not, as Mr. Rauch says, to Ronald Reagan but to Jimmy Carter.
In 1979 Carter appointed Paul Volcker to replace G. William Miller as Chairman of the Federal Reserve. On October 6, 1979, Volcker led the Federal Open Market Committee to shift its focus from stabilizing interest rates to controlling the growth of the money supply. It was this policy change that reduced inflation.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
Editor, The Atlantic
Dear Editor:
One factual error mars Jonathan Rauch's otherwise commendable essay on the lamentable presidencies of Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, and George W. Bush ("Unwinding Bush," October). Credit for reining in inflation belongs not, as Mr. Rauch says, to Ronald Reagan but to Jimmy Carter.
In 1979 Carter appointed Paul Volcker to replace G. William Miller as Chairman of the Federal Reserve. On October 6, 1979, Volcker led the Federal Open Market Committee to shift its focus from stabilizing interest rates to controlling the growth of the money supply. It was this policy change that reduced inflation.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
Posted by Don Boudreaux on
Tuesday May 22, 2007 at 3:13pm