Among economists, conventional wisdom now holds that if a country’s political leaders ignore Volcker’s legacy and stop central banks from making tough decisions, markets will punish them. Currency failures such as Zimbabwe’s, Argentina’s and Turkey’s are pointed to as examples. By contrast, the U.S. economy’s long, mostly steady and rarely interrupted expansion since Volcker’s 1982 recession, and the concurrent 40-year growth in its stock market – with a more than 100-fold increase in the S&P 500 to its peak last year – is presented as proof of the payoff to those who play by the rules.