Volcker

Influential Participants Amongst the Camp David summit participants, the Under Security of the Treasury for Monetary Affairs, Paul A. Volcker, Secretary of Treasury, John B. Connally, Jr., the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Arthur F. Burns, and the director of the Office of Management and Budget, George P. Shultz probably played a significant role in the initiative announced by President Nixon’s a nationally televised address on August 15, 1971. Volcker had been leading the effort to stabilize the international monetary system for the Nixon’s administration. The new Secretary of Connally replaced David M. Kennedy in earlier in the year was Volcker’s new boss. Burns who had been reluctantly loosening credit to accommodate the administration’s desired for
The Vice President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Robert Vincent Roosa, well known for his ingenuity in creating policies to maintain the dollar and gold parity influenced Volcker’s views on the gold standard. For instance, Roosa created the Roosa bonds, which were exchange guaranteed swap agreements created to help preserve dollar and gold parity. Being a student of Roosa, Volcker probably ranked the pledge to gold alongside the pursuit of happiness for all citizens. For example, a colleague at Chase Manhattan bank described a perturbed Volcker on a day in October 1960 when the gold price hit $40. In 1969, as the undersecretary for monetary affairs and heading the working group on international monetary policy, Volcker began his plan to stabilize the dollar and Bretton Woods. Consequently, in March 17th, 1969, the Volcker Group paper outlined the possible approaches to stabilizing the international monetary system. The paper concluded the closing of the gold window was the longer-term option to implement when all other shorter-term plans failed to produce the desired goals. Subsequently, on July 16, 1969, the Volcker Group held a meeting to discuss various options to activate the