Andrew Ross Sorkin reports on Paul Volcker's new book, Keeping At It: The Quest For Sound Money And Good Government:
while President Trump has complained in recent months about the Fed's plan to raise interest rates, he isn't the first to try to influence the independent Federal Reserve. Mr. Volcker recounts being summoned to meet with President Ronald Reagan and his chief of staff, James Baker, in the president's library next to the Oval Office in 1984.
Reagan "didn't say a word," Mr. Volcker wrote. "Instead Baker delivered a message: 'The president is ordering you not to raise interest rates before the election.'" Mr. Volcker wasn't planning to raise rates at the time.
"I was stunned," he wrote. "I later surmised that the library location had been chosen because, unlike the Oval Office, it probably lacked a taping system."
Yet another fine example of the New York Times reminding its readers that Trump's actions, at least some of them, are not unprecedented, but precedented. That doesn't necessarily mean they are wise, or even constitutional. But it nonetheless is a useful journalistic function.