In article , Mike Coslo
writes:

We were moving away from the Gold Standard
at that time. It was the date that President Richard Nixon instituted
Wage and Price controls. At that time, inflation was at the 4% level -
something considered intolerable.


Yep.

And Nixon was a Republican, who you would think would be a staunch
supporter of
a free market and completely opposed to trying to control the economy byu
government fiat.

That was one of the most curious things I can remember in politics. At
the time, I was just out of school, so I didn't think much one way or
the other. But the results got my attention.

It was "smoke and mirros" by a *REPUBLICAN* White House to cover up what was
really going on economically.

The next deveral years were
just about impossible for me to get a job. 18 years old and single made
me almost unenployable for the next several years. The jobs that were
available were going to people with families, vets, etc I was on the
bottom of the list.

Around here that was less true - but the good jobs went to vets, those with
families or experience, and those with education.

We soon found out just how "nice" a measly 4% inflation rate was. The
initial 90 day freeze turned into around 1000 days of "adjustments" that
soon saw the inflation rate at 13 percent in December of 1974. The rate
dropped after that, but what was handed to President Carter was an
economic train wreck, to put it mildly. This all culminated in an
inflation rate of 15 percent in March of 1980.

I was there, I remember. Interest rates went up even higher - I recall
friends paying 17% for home mortgages.

They must have had jobs too! 8^)

Yep - in every case I knew, both the husband and wife worked full time and
delayed having kids because of it. This was a time when a major shift in
American society happened, and it's very un-PC to talk about: We went from a
society where millions of women, particularly those with small children, went
from 'wanting to work' to 'having to work'.

Of course back in those days you could deduct *all* consumer interest
payments so there was a silver lining come tax time.

From all I read, it's clear to me that the sudden jump in oil prices was a
major factor driving that inflation.

The Wage and price freeze was what turned me into an fiscal conservative!

Now, was that a "leeberal" mistake?

Nope.

It was smoke and mirrors. And it didn't work. And it was made necessary by the
fact that the USA in the '60s was preoccupied with other things.

73 de Jim, N2EY