Deja vu? It's looking like 1987 again for the US economy

Weak dollar, rising inflation, recession memories fading, new hand at the Fed " and meltdown?

It is August 1987 and the US economy is humming along. Memories of the deep recession earlier in the decade are fading fast. Tom Wolfe is about to publish The Bonfire of the Vanities, which captures perfectly Wall Street's greedy bullishness.

The financial markets have Paul Volcker to thank for rising share prices. As chairman of America's central bank, the Federal Reserve, Volcker had given the US economy shock treatment to rid it of its inflationary excesses. Record-high interest rates triggered the worst recession in the US since the 1930s, but once inflation started to come down borrowing costs were cut sharply and the economy recovered.