"Simply stated, the bright new financial system - for all its talented participants, for all its rich rewards - has failed the test of the market place." Paul Volcker, April 8 2008

Paul Volcker is the giant among contemporary central bankers, both literally and figuratively. He it was who had the moral courage to crush inflation as chairman of the Federal Reserve between 1979 and 1987. When Mr Volcker speaks, people listen. What he had to tell the economic club of New York last month was well worth listening to.* His summation, cited above, was so devastating, because so true.