Young or old, we know our history. I find it condescending that you assume we never heard of him.

Who doesn’t miss hyperinflation, 20% interest rates and 12% unemployment Carter have us.

Mudede, a marvelous stroll. Thank you!

Thanks for the condescending headline, but lots of people - many, I assume, readers of this blog - are familiar with Volcker.

I blame him for destroying North America's middle class and dooming x-Gen and Millenials to a lifetime of serfdom.

The US post WWII dominance of markets worldwide wasn't sustainable. The boomers got to bask in the spoils of that dominance. That's over now. It was inevitable that Europe and Asia would rebuild and that other countries would develop into serious competitors. Volcker was right when he said Americans needed to lower their standard of living but that's a hard pill to swallow. What's unfortunate is that only the middle class ended up having to adjust their standard of living. The wealthy kept their standard of living right where they were, and still stay there today. They even push the middle class down further in order to raise themselves up higher.

All those bizarre complaints you hear against millenials... that they're ruining the housing market because they're not buying houses and they're not spending the way boomers used to spend... that's that bitter pill being swallowed right there. It's not post WWII anymore. America is not the dominating powerhouse it once was. Everyone sees how today corporations bow to China's demands. For decades, the rest of the world watched global corporations bow to America's demands. Now Americans get their turn to watch.

In some ways, the rise of China and Vietnam is due to the damage caused by WW II and the Vietnam War. When things get destroyed, they get replaced with better and more efficient modern versions. You see this in Japan, as a result of all the tsunamis and quakes and storms.

"...you, as an American, must now rent your wages (in the form of debt) rather own them outright (as would be the case if wages were permitted to rise)..."

That may very well be true for you Chuck (you should take it up with your employer), but it's not true for me or anyone I know. In the last 30 years I have seen my wages rise 400%.

@8
And atom bombs... you forgot the atom bombs. And of course the Allied Occupation.

@9 Ditto. Our household income has doubled in 8 years. Then again we’ve been busy planning our careers, developing highly marketable skills rather than pulling shots at a coffee shop and calling ourselves an “artists” and “activists” or working at a failing alt-weekly.

A little bit of ambition goes a long way.

Otherwise, as I warn my kids, Jiffy Lube is always hiring.

Some of us aren’t from the States and don’t know who Volcker was. Thank you Charles for the explanation.
So the activists who are highlighting the state of our planet, focusing on saving you and your kids’ asses, @11, you see no value in their efforts.. because they won’t be bleeding the collapsing world like some others. Some of you folk think it’s all going to go on like this for your children? Wake up.

Good article, even if the title is insulting (as @1 said).

The only problem is that it gives Volcker way too much credit for ending the post war prosperity era (the period where we built the greatest middle class the world had ever known). When Reagan was elected, my friend said we would eventually have a Mexican economy. What he meant by that is the middle class would be hollowed out. Sure enough, that has happened. But the actions of the elected government have as much to do with that as the actions of the Fed. I'm not defending Volker's actions, I'm saying that they had a relatively minor role in it. The loss of labor power and deregulation (both big with Reagan, and every Republican president and congressional leader since him) are probably the biggest causes. But you can add on things like the increased incarceration rates, lack of social service spending -- all of those things that you would expect to fuck up the middle and lower classes.

I'm not saying Volker acted properly, but saying he was largely responsible for the problems misses the real culprit: Reagan.

@9 -- " In the last 30 years I have seen my wages rise 400%."

You are misunderstanding his statement. Of course your wages go up. They will go up with inflation, as well as because you are a better worker. But wages overall haven't gone up. You need to compare your wage to someone who had the same experience in the same field fifty years ago. Chances are, the wages relative to inflation have not gone up. The same is true for entry level workers now versus then. There are exceptions, for a handful of fields, but overall, wages for the same level of work and experience haven't gone up any faster than inflation.

Prior to that, they did. In the post war period, the rising tide really did raise all boats. But since the 1980s, just about all the wealth has flown upwards, to fewer and fewer people. Some are professional workers, but most are owners. You can cite specific examples of people (or fields) which have done better, but overall, we haven't.