resist the political pressure—the demands for ‘accommodation,’ as the bankers call it—for long.” In von Hoffman’s description, Chairman Burns had been a veritable ninety-eight-pound weakling, Volcker a “stubborn mule, the intellectual activist, the rock of integrity,” whose “mettle needed to end the costly price climb” was matched only by his selflessness: he had, after all, taken a $53,000-a-year pay cut from his previous job. The cult of the swaggering John Connally had passed. The cult of Volcker replaced it practically without missing a beat.
