Keeping at It
A timely note from Paul Volcker's memoir.
This article is brought to you by American Purpose, the magazine and community founded by Francis Fukuyama in 2020, which is proudly part of the Persuasion family.
Paul Volcker was one of the true giants of American policymaking in the 20th century. While he is best known for his role as chairman of the Federal Reserve in the late 1970s and for bringing down runaway inflation, his true passion was the protection and promotion of public service. He believed that the country undervalued its civil servants, and in 2013 he founded an organization called the Volcker Alliance to promote public service as a calling. I felt privileged when he asked me to serve on its board, something I am still proud to do.
Paul would be turning over in his grave if he witnessed what Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and DOGE are doing to his cherished civil service. We are reprinting this piece that served as the afterword to the second edition of his memoir, which brings together both his interest in public service and his belief in the centrality of an independent central bank. I’m sure he would be out there shouting “Hands Off the Federal Reserve!” were he still alive today.
—Francis Fukuyama
When I finished writing this book, late in the summer of 2018, it was already clear that the United States—and the world order it had helped establish during my lifetime—were facing deep-seated political, economic, and cultural challenges. I concluded with a bit of reassurance: My mother’s reminder that the United States had endured a brutal civil war, two world wars, a great depression, and still emerged as the leader of the “free world,” a model for democracy, open markets, free trade, and economic growth. That was for me a source of both pride and hope.
Today, threats facing that model have grown more ominous, and our ability to withstand them feels less certain. Increasingly, by design or not, there appears to be a movement to undermine Americans’ faith in our government and its policies and institutions. We’ve moved well beyond Ronald Reagan’s credo that “government is the problem,” with its aim of reversing decades of federal expansion. Today we see something very different and far more sinister. Nihilistic forces are dismantling policies to protect our air, water, and climate. And they seek to discredit the pillars of our democracy: voting rights and fair elections, the rule of law, the free press, the separation of powers, the belief in science, and the concept of truth itself.
Without these, the American example that my mother so cherished will revert to the kind of tyranny that once seemed to be on its way to extinction—though, sadly, it remains ensconced in some less fortunate parts of the world.
In the original edition of this book I observed that President Trump had not attacked the independent Federal Reserve, for which I was grateful. To say that is no longer true would be an understatement. Not since just after World War II have we seen a president so openly seek to dictate policy to the Fed. That is a matter of great concern, given that the Federal Reserve is one of our key government institutions, carefully designed to be free of purely partisan attacks. I trust that the members of the Federal Reserve Board itself, the members of Congress responsible for Fed oversight, and indeed the public at large will maintain the Fed’s ability to act in the nation’s interest, free of partisan political purposes.
Monetary policy is important, but it cannot by itself sustain global leadership. We need open markets and strong allies to support economic growth and the prospects for peace. Those constructive American policies have been a large part of my life. Instead, confidence in the United States is under siege.
Seventy-five years ago, Americans rose to the challenge of vanquishing tyranny overseas. We joined with our allies, keenly recognizing the need to defend and sustain our hard-won democratic freedoms.
Today’s generation faces a different, but equally existential, test. How we respond will determine the future of our own democracy and, ultimately, of the planet itself. There is a need to “keep at it.” It cannot be set aside.
Excerpted from Keeping At It: The Quest for Sound Money and Good Government by Paul A Volcker and Christine Harper. Copyright © 2020. Available from PublicAffairs, an imprint of Hachette Book Group, Inc.
Follow Persuasion on X, LinkedIn, and YouTube to keep up with our latest articles, podcasts, and events, as well as updates from excellent writers across our network.
And, to receive pieces like this in your inbox and support our work, subscribe below: