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Rest in Peace Paul Volcker

Statement of Bartlett Naylor, Financial Policy Advocate, Public Citizen

Note: Paul Volcker died today at age 92. Following his eight-year tenure as chair of the Federal Reserve Board, he continued his long public service career with efforts to reform the gambling frenzy that led to the 2008 Wall Street crash and then to improve the quality of government experts.

While too many government workers spin through the revolving door between regulatory agencies and Wall Street sinecures, Volcker remained true with a lifetime of public service. He secured one of his greatest achievements in his senior years, when his influence led Congress to enact the Volcker Rule, a seminal declaration that banks should not gamble with federally insured depositors’ money. From my first days in the financial arena to the present, Volcker was always the first and last authority in any substantive Wall Street policy conversation.