Hard Lessons

       Amid the media noise created by the tRump impeachment hearings, lesser events are given short schrift, but perhaps two things which happened in the last few days are important enough for a second look.
      Paul Volcker has died.  For millions who suffered under his anti inflation policies in the late 70s and early 80s of the last century, that is probably cause for celebration.   To be fair, the 10% inflation that characterized the era when many boomers came of age was definitely a problem that needed to be dealt with.  Volcker's chosen method was to raise interest rates in a draconian fashion and subject the working class to a decade of lost earnings.   Union busting was also part of the plan to bring down inflation as the unions were struggling to bring wages in line with inflation.  Ronald Reagan's breaking of the Air Traffic controllers union was perhaps the straw which helped break the back of a declining labor movement.  Volcker continued the harsh interest rate policy until the recession of 1982 succeeded in stemming the inflationary tide.   His legacy is the Federal Reserve's fanatical devotion to keeping inflation below 2% despite little or no evidence that is some sort of sacred limit to inflation.  
      Meanwhile, the labor department announced the unemployment rate is at a 50 year low, clocking in at 3.5%.   Right wing economists have told us for almost as long that a nearly 6% unemployment rate is built into our economy and is the price we must pay for economic stability.  Somehow, despite its warts, the present economy gives the lie to that dogma.   how many millions have sacrificed their futures on the altar of a policy which prescribed their suffering as a necessary adjunct to prosperity for the rest of the population.