A Fed chair crushed inflation by deliberately causing a recession

In October 1979, Paul Volcker's Federal Reserve began pushing interest rates to unprecedented heights, sending the fed funds rate to over 20% by 1981. It triggered a brutal recession and double-digit unemployment, but it broke a decade of runaway inflation for good — one of the clearest demonstrations that central banks can choose to inflict short-term pain for long-term price stability.

— Paul Volcker / Federal Reserve, Volcker Shock — Historical monetary policy episode, 1979-1982