Books, Arts & Manners: Dangerous Curves

Changing Fortunes: The Shaping of the International Monetary Order, by Paul Volcker and Toyoo Gyohten (Random House, 352 pp., $25)

IN Changing Fortunes, former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker and Toyoo Gyohten of the Japanese Ministry of Finance tell a fascinating story about how policymakers are always behind the curve. It is not surprising that markets know more than people who spend their lives intervening in them and trying to fine-tune them, but it is surprising to hear two prominent policy-makers admit that they spent their public lives constantly surprised by developments and by the consequences of their actions.

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Paul Craig Roberts

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Changing Fortunes: The Shaping of the International Monetary Order, by Paul Volcker and Toyoo Gyohten (Random House, 352 pp., $25)

IN Changing Fortunes, former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker and Toyoo Gyohten of the Japanese Ministry of Finance tell a fascinating story about how policymakers are always behind the curve. It is not surprising that markets know more than people who spend their lives intervening in them and trying to fine-tune them, but it is surprising to hear two prominent policy-makers admit that they spent their public lives constantly surprised by developments and by the consequences of their actions.