Nation: Volcker to the Rescue

A towering moneyman to impress the gnomes of Europe

Despite his brobdingnagian frame (6 ft. 7 in., 240 lbs.), his ever present cigar and his gravelly bass voice, Paul Volcker is a man who likes to keep a low profile, to perform his financial wizardry as a bureaucratic technician rather than as a public figure. But such behind-the-scenes machinations have their frustrations. One night, after an International Monetary Fund meeting in Copenhagen, Volcker was so exasperated with his colleagues that he strode down to the Tivoli Gardens and proceeded to throw wooden balls in...