THE RISE: The cigar-chomping, 6-foot-7-inch Volcker dominated the U.S. business landscape after his appointment as chairman of the Federal Reserve in 1979. Presiding over a $4-trillion national economy, Volcker aggressively raised interest rates to beat down inflation from a 1980 high of 14.8% to 1.1% six years later. When Jimmy Carter hired him as Fed chairman, Volcker's starting salary was $57,500; his wife took a job as a bookkeeper to shore up the family finances.
BUT THEN: Volcker was appointed to a second term in 1983. Many blamed him for the brutal recession of the early 1980s, when unemployment soared to more than 10%. After 30 years in the civil service, serving under five presidents, he resigned in 1987.
NEXT: Replaced by Alan Greenspan, Volcker rejoined private life as the new chairman of James D. Wolfensohn & Co., Inc., a Wall Street investment firm. He left in 1996 when the firm merged with Bankers Trust. He taught economics at his alma mater, Princeton, and in the late '90s, headed a three-year audit of the Swiss banks - it investigated the mishandling of accounts of Holocaust victims.
WHERE HE IS NOW: Now 74, Volcker still goes to his office most days-that is, when he's not fly-fishing in Iceland or Canada. He is chairman of the board of trustees of the International Accounting Standards Board and the Group of Thirty, a global financial consulting group composed of senior figures from the business world. Reflecting on his career in public service, Volcker said, "When I grew up, there was belief that government work was a noble profession. Now, if you wanted to make a career in the Treasury Department, they would put you in the loony bin."