Commentary It’s become fashionable recently to invoke the memory of the late Paul Volcker, with consumer prices rising at their fastest rate since he ostensibly vanquished the double-digit price inflation of his watch. Saddled himself with the political mess he inherited from a tanking U.S. dollar and soaring prices, former President Jimmy Carter finally appointed Volcker as Fed Chairman in the summer of 1979 to do something about all this. Volcker proceeded to raise interest rates to previously unthought-of levels as we moved into the early 80s; and at the expense of a severe recession in 1981–82. But the consumer price inflation surge was all but ended. By the time the late President Ronald Reagan appointed him for a second term as Fed Chairman, Volcker (the two of them above in the Oval Office) was already well into his “second act” at the helm of the central bank. And it was a …