Paul A. Volcker Quotes

You have to change people’s minds to stop inflation.

There's no such thing as a painless cure for inflation.

Let's turn inflation over to the post office. That'll slow it down.

The natural tendency of the state is inflation.

Deflation isn't good, and inflation is easier to cure than deflation.

Since World War II, inflation - the apparently inexorable rise in the prices of goods and services - has been the bane of central bankers.

If global oil prices or commodity prices are high, then it is bound to create inflation. So, we should not be too worried if the inflation is created by global commodity prices. When they come down, inflation will automatically come down.

Our purpose is to lean against the winds of deflation or inflation, whichever way they are blowing.

Having a little inflation is like being a little bit pregnant.

If by carelessness in controlling inflation and imposing controls on our general economy we are unable to meet these temporary but vital calls upon us, we will be courting real disaster.

No one single thing that we do will control inflation

Attempting to control inflation or protect the dollar by throwing legions of people out of work and shutting down shifts in our factories and mines is a hopeless policy.

Whip Inflation Now

Ask me whether inflation represents longer-term problem. I think there's a potential there for excess reserves to create problems.

Double-digit inflation is a terrible thing - and it got up to 14 or 15 percent on a monthly basis for a while, shortly after I became chairman of the Fed.

It was gradually learned that acceptance of a somewhat higher inflation rate would not really bring somewhat higher employment.

During the past two decades, inflation has fallen to a low level in major industrial countries.

The central focus of what we are doing at the Fed is to keep inflation from accelerating - and preferably decelerating.

I reject the advice of those who think the only way to fight inflation is to throw millions of people out of work .... I guarantee you that I will not fight inflation with your jobs.

The history of interest rates is really the history of inflation. When inflation is high, interest rates are high, and when inflation is low, interest rates are low.

Experience shows that high and unstable inflation can harm growth. A noninflationary macroeconomic policy is, therefore, a prerequisite for rapid development. Control of government borrowing is the crucial element in such a policy. When public borrowing is excessive, governments are soon obliged to finance it by printing money, and rising inflation then follows.

The best way that a central bank can support growth on a durable basis is to ensure inflation is low, stable - there is financial stability - and that is the role that the central bank plays.

After a long period in which the desired direction for inflation was always downward, the industrialized world's central banks must today try to avoid major changes in the inflation rate in either direction.

Japan's experience suggests the importance of assessing the sustainability of price stability over a fairly long period, which many central banks have emphasized in recent years.

We pay some price when necessary to bring down inflation but that price is temporary and is not large relative to the permanent gain from reduced inflation.