> While Volcker had used high interest rates to engineer a crushing recession at the start of Reagan’s first term, he then allowed the economy to expand rapidly just in time to carry Reagan to a landslide reelection in 1984.<p>Is it really true that one person controls the whole economy?<p>And if so, why does Glass-Steagall matter one way or the other?<p>How could Volcker on the one hand crash the economy <i>himself</i>, and then immediately <i>un-crash</i> it, while on the other hand being the guardian of Glass-Steagall, supposedly the only defense against... crashing the economy?<p>This story seems to be more mythmaking than science.