Pragmatically and ideologically, it’s most welcome to see that former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker now has an increasingly higher profile in the Obama Administration. No longer is Volcker, 82, the carping elder in the background muttering about too-big-to-fail-sized banks and grumbling about the inherent dangers of proprietary trading by commercial banks.
But at a purely visceral level, isn’t it re-assuring to see the icon who tamed inflation in the late 1970s back in vogue? This time talking tough about cracking down on Wall Street excess.
In turbulent times, it’s especially helpful — as in reassuring — if the best and brightest also look it. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, for all of his New York Fed bona fides and financial connections, still doesn’t get a chance to make a second first impression. We don’t need to see the point man for economic recovery being lectured to by preening Congressional committee members. He still looks like he belongs in an MBA seminar. And not necessarily as the instructor.