Entries tagged with hero cultus

When Thomas Edison died in 1931, President Herbert Hoover requested that Americans pay their personal respects to the inventor. He asked that everyone turn off their lights for one minute at the same time. This was a fine tribute for the man who not only perfected the light bulb but also invented the electrical delivery system.

One problem was that lights were so integrated into American life that some had to be kept on for public safety. This demonstrated Edison’s far-reaching effect on American life. When Edison died, he was the most prolific inventor in American history with 1,093 patents in his name. By changing the landscape of industrial America, he created the 20th Century. His legacy was so profound that technology today would not exist without his visions.

Called the “Wizard of Light and Sound,” Edison did more than simply capture light and sound. He established the industrial research lab and the electric power company. Not only that, but Edison’s improved transmitter for telephones replaced Bell’s. (Note 1.) By improving the telegraph, he became responsible for the stock ticker. Rechargeable batteries for electric cars are another Edison invention. (My favorite is the electric bug zapper.) In his works, Edison laid the framework for the modern world.

Edison was unique among inventors. By not only dreaming visions not yet thought of by others, he made those dreams come true. By seeing the whole picture, Edison could imagine the potential for something to become much more. This is evident in not only discovering a better filament for the light bulb but also the system for the convenient power to turn that bulb on.

Resilient and optimistic, Edison took risks and did not fear failure. One vision, he had was to capture sound. Although he was profoundly deaf, he invented the phonograph. After the phonograph, Edison captured sight with his motion picture camera, and established the film studio. His insights led to the “talking” movies of today.

This was a visionary who worked hard to create his vision. Edison said, “Results! Why man, I have gotten a lot of results. I know several thousand things that won’t work.” He believed that his deafness allowed him to concentrate more easily on inventing. Always experimenting, Edison said, “There’s a way to do it better. Find it.”

These are the qualities of a diviner: to see the future and wonder how to achieve it. Edison found answers to problems that people did not conceive. Not satisfied with one answer, Edison tried to find multiple answers to each problem. Diviners see multiple futures, and multiple paths to those futures. Edison was not always successful, but he never stopped trying. He strove to provide as a compete answer from different perspectives. This is what diviners do.

Notes:

Note 1. Alexander Graham Bell invented the original telephone. Edison improved it. Moreover, his carbon telephone transmitter was used well into the 1980s.

Works Used:

Clayton, Matt, “Thomas Edison.” Captivating History: Independently Published. 2017.

Klein, Christopher, “When Edison Turned Night Into Day,” 31 May 2023, HISTORY. https://www.history.com/news/when-edison-turned-night-into-day.

History.com Editors, “Thomas Edison,” 17 October, 2023, HISTORY. https://www.history.com/topics/inventions/thomas-edison.

Oy, Kolme Korkeudet, “Thomas Edison, the One who Changed the World.” The History Hour: Independently Published. 2018.

—, “Thomas Edison: A Life From Beginning to End.” Hourly History: Independently Published. 2017.

Like many giants, Paul Volcker (U.S. 1927-2019) changed the landscape in his wake. He reshaped the financial sector of the United States. In 1979, as the Chair of the Federal Reserve (Note 1), Volcker initiated the “Volcker Shock,” thereby taming rampant inflation. His actions instituted forty years of low inflation in America.

Later at 82 years old, Volcker was asked by President Barack Obama to resolve the collapse of U.S. banking. This had resulted in the 2008 Financial Collapse, which paralyzed the economy. Volcker established the Volcker Rule, which was enacted in 2015, to govern investment banking.

A very tall man (6 feet 7 inches), Volcker said that as a teenager, he was “big, tall, and gangly.” He was so tall that the U.S. Army rejected him when he was drafted in 1945. A quiet man, he preferred to listen since everyone usually just stared at him. Throughout his life, Volcker was known as “Tall Paul” or “The Tall Man.” Walking down the street, he stood head and shoulders above everyone else. Since he was always noticed, Volcker decided to live life on his own terms. Therefore, he stood tall, smoked cheap cigars, and scrunched up his socks. Coming to terms with his size freed Volcker from conforming to the expectations of others. He would forge his own path doing what he thought was right and good.

Many people admired Volcker for his independence. Ben Bernake, Chair of the Federal Reserve (2006- 2014), said of him, “Volcker came to represent independence. He personified the idea of doing something politically unpopular but economically necessary.” Alan Blinder, Former Vice-Chair of the Federal Reserve (1994-96), said “I would describe him as having the integrity and will of 10 men.”

While Undersecretary of the Treasury, Volcker had advised President Richard Nixon to go off the Gold Standard. During the 1970s, the Bretton Woods System, set-up in 1944 to stabilize global exchange rates, fell apart. World currencies were pegged to the U.S. dollar since the U.S. had the gold to back its dollar. However, the dramatic increase in printed money brought about by the Vietnam War, could not be backed in gold. Therefore, Nixon took the U.S. off of the Gold Standard. Now that the dollar was not pegged to anything, prices rose until inflation was ten percent.

Appointed by President Jimmy Carter in 1979 to be the Chair of the Federal Reserve, Volcker had to stop the rampant inflation. To do this, he raised interest rates to twenty percent. The Volcker Shock shut down the economy. People were in deep pain. Farmers surrounded the Board Building (Note 2) with their tractors. Realtors sent in wood blocks addressed to Volcker complaining that mortgage rates were too high. Car dealers sent in keys of unsold cars. When Volcker left the Federal Reserve in 1987, inflation had fallen to 3.4 percent, which became the norm for the next forty years.

After leaving the Federal Reserve, Volcker continued to serve the public interest as a private citizen. For example, the Volcker Commission (Independent Committee of Eminent Persons (ICEP)) was established in 1996 to examine the accounts of Holocaust victims in Swiss banks. He had been asked by both the Swiss bankers and Jewish organizations to head the Commission. In an interview recalling this, Volcker said that the two groups trusted him to deal fairly with this explosive and delicate situation. The Commission examined over six million accounts from 1933 to 1945. In 1999, the Commission reached a settlement of $U.S.1.25 billion dollars to be paid by the banks to the survivors and their families.

In 2009, Volcker was asked by President Barack Obama to resolve the collapse of U.S. banking. At a news conference introducing him as the head of his new Board (Note 3), President Obama referred to Volcker as “the tall guy behind me.” According to Volcker, the termination of the Glass-Steagall Act (enacted in 1933 to govern banking) in 1999 allowed the American banks to co-mingle their commercial and investment banking. He concluded that banks should not be allowed to engage in speculation especially with customers’ deposits. Therefore, he wrote The Volcker Rule to ban banks from using customers’ money for their own profits (proprietary trading). Banks could not become involved high-risk investments. In 2015, the Volcker Rule went into effect as part of the Dodd-Frank Act.

Because of his size, Volcker also had the force of personality. Testifying before the U.S. Congress about implementing his Rule, he told Congress, “I may not live long enough to see the crisis end. But my soul is going to come back and haunt you.”

When asked about Paul Volcker, Anne-Marie Slaughter, former Dean of the Wilson School, said, “He was refreshingly blunt. He said what he thought whether you were going to like it or not. He really did represent an ideal of public service that he took very seriously in his lifestyle as well as his career.” About his death, she observed, “It is really as if a giant tree has fallen in the forest.”

Notes:

Note 1. Volcker’s full title was Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.

Note 2. This building housed the offices of the Chairman and the Governors.

Note 3. The President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board (PERAB).

Works Used:

Amadeo, Kimberly, “The 6’7″ Giant Who Ended Stagflation and Has His Own Rule,” The Balance: Money, 30 October 2021. Web. https://www.thebalancemoney.com/who-is-paul-volcker-3306157.

—-, “The Volcker Rule and How It Protects You,” The Balance: Money, 4 March, 2021. Web. https://www.thebalancemoney.com/volcker-rule-summary-3305905.

Bohan, Caren and Kristina Cooke, “Cheap cigars, politics and the Volcker Rule,” Reuters: Business News, 12 March 2010. Web. https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE62B2YN20100312?type=politicsNews.

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, “Paul A. Volcker”, Federal Reserve History, 2013. Web. https://www.federalreservehistory.org/people/paul-a-volcker.

Federal Reserve Board of Governors, “Federal Reserve Oral History Interviews.” 2013. Web. https://www.federalreserve.gov/aboutthefed/centennial/federal-reserve-oral-history-interviews.htm.

Gelinas, Nicole, “The Tall Man,” The City Journal, 10 December 2019. Web.https://www.city-journal.org/paul-volcker.

Shen, Allen, “‘The Integrity and Will of Ten Men’: the Life of Paul Volcker ’49,” Daily Princetonian, 9 January 2020. Web. https://www.dailyprincetonian.com/article/2020/01/the-integrity-and-will-of-ten-men-the-life-of-paul-volcker-49-obit.

Hero Cultus: Thomas Edison

HERO CULTUS: PAUL VOLCKER OF BANKING AND FINANCE