No figure loomed larger over the world economy in 1982 than that of the 6-ft. 7-in. cigar-smoking chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve Board, Paul A. Volcker. It was he who fought unflinchingly to bring down the U.S. consumer price spiral, but in the process he helped drive interest rates and unemployment up throughout the industrialized societies. In the U.S., his policies surprised skeptics by limiting the rise in the nation's consumer price index to roughly 5% in 1982, but his policies also helped push unemployment stunningly into double digits. By year's end...
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