The job of being president of the United States Federal Reserve was once described as being "God on a good day."
That was before the financial crisis of 2008 and the Great Recession, but even so, the Fed chairman is the director of the world's largest economy. Stocks, bonds and exchange rates rise and fall based solely on the words coming out of the mouth of the president of the Fed.
Go power trip.
However, the four people alive today who have held that office not believe it is nothing like being a deity.
"You can not do exactly what you want," said former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker on Thursday at an event at the International House in New York. "You have a council. You have an audience. You have the presidents of the regional Reserve Banks. "
Fareed Zakaria of CNN moderated the debate with the presidents of the Volcker Fed, Ben Bernanke, Alan Greenspan and the current president, Janet Yellen. It was the first time the four living presidents of the Fed were interviewed at the same time.
Important decisions on interest rates and other measures to boost or slow the economy are all made by a committee. The president only has one vote.
Volcker, who served as Fed chairman from 1979 to 1987, is famous for fighting inflation. His committee fought against raising interest rates to a record high of 20%. That raised mortgage rates, rates on credit cards and other financial charges US Volcker and made a very unpopular man for a while.
Instead of turning up the ego, often I felt like people gave them a rope to hang themselves.
He suspects that the office carpet Fed chairman still shows the wear left for him when he walked back and forth.
Ben Bernanke was president from 2006 to 2014; right in the middle of the financial crisis and a severe recession. He called the Fed a "wonderful institution," not a one-person show.
"I did not take the job by flattery," said Zakaria. "We have had enormous responsibilities to try to deal with those terrible risks."
The Fed chairman who got the closest to rock star status was Greenspan. He led the Fed from 1987 to 2006, a time mostly boom. Bob Woodward called his book published in 2000 about the Master. Greenspan quipped that all his celebrity status "shamed" but that "easily overcame the shame."
Greenspan's aura has taken a hit since the Great Recession. Now, some blame him for helping cause the housing crisis and the overheated market. Zakaria said the hardest part of the job for all the presidents of the Fed is that there is a limit to what can be predicted, however, people seem to think they have some kind of psychic ability.
The current Fed President Yellen feels strongly that pressure. Zakaria questioned her: Do you regret having raised interest rates in December for the first time in years?
"I do not think December was a mistake," Yellen said. "We believe that a gradual path of rate increases will be appropriate."