Word: wages
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...productivity. - Establishment within the Government of a Regulations and Purchasing Review Board to study federal regulations and import policies in order to pinpoint where the Government inadvertently acts to drive up costs. - Assignment of the Council of Economic Advisers to prepare a periodic "inflation alert," warning the public which wage or price boosts are inflationary and identifying the industries, though not the corporations or unions involved...
...cautious step away from a passive posture to an activist presidential role in economic policy. "Now is the time for business at every level to take price actions more consistent with a stable cost of living," said the President. "Now is the time for labor to structure its wage demands to better achieve a new stability of costs." His plea brought an immediate response from one firm. An Indiana electrical company announced that it would buy no copper wire from any firm that increased its prices...
Nixon agreed to the talk, but neither he nor his aides agreed as to what he should say. Federal Reserve Board Chairman Arthur Burns opposed controls but favored an ''incomes policy" under which the Government would establish, but not enforce, wage-price guidelines. Labor Secretary George Shultz and Herbert Stein, a member of the Council of Economic Advisers, wanted to do nothing at all. CEA Chairman Paul McCracken opposed any plan that would require his staff to police wage-and-price agreements...
Second-echelon aides had more specific suggestions. Treasury Under Secretary Paul Volcker suggested a voluntary wage-price freeze. Treasury Under Secretary Charls Walker*backed Senator Jacob Javits' original plan to have some group identify and spotlight major inflationary wage-and-price hikes before they take place, but did not feel it was a job for the CEA. Trying to reconcile all this, Speechwriter William Safire wrote ten drafts before a reluctant consensus was reached...
Reaction to the President's address was partisan. Economist Milton Friedman hailed Nixon's decision to avoid wage-and-price controls. University of Minnesota Professor Walter Heller found the President's espousal of wish-boning "better than nothing, but not much." Banker David Rockefeller, who had urged the President to appeal for restraint, termed Nixon's proposals "excellent." But A.F.L.-C.l.O. President George Meany, who has supported Nixon on Viet Nam, disagreed with his plans to end inflation. "I fail to see how they will curb inflation, reduce unemployment and cut interest rates," he said. Emil...