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Volcker on the Economy and Global Warming

-- Adam -- 02/06/2007

Paul Volcker, former Fed chair who tackled stagflation during the 70's, made strong statements in support of controlling greenhouse emissions today in Cairo, the AP reports. "Volcker said the argument that taxes on oil or carbon emissions, for example, would ruin an economy was 'fundamentally false.'" He went on to say economic controls on carbon emissions would have little negative impact on the full economy and that the ramifications would be much worse in a few decades without intervention. Taxing petroleum or resulting emissions would be an "effective" way to prevent disastrous climatic changes, Volcker argues. "A lot of people in the United States haven't been convinced that it's a problem. Now I think that is changing. The evidence is becoming so strong that may be we are building a base for a political understanding that hasn't been there before."