THE WASHINGTON POST, SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1978
The emergency of inflation as Issue No. 1ÛÓand Nos. 2. 3 and 4, as wellÛÓobliges the Carter administration to do more than just add a couple of new devices for restraining wages and prices. Conditions cry out for a change in the style of making and applying economic policy. _</br></br>Instead of speaking with many voices in tones apt to change from minute to minute, the administration now needs to give clear signals that compel the conviction that it is embarked on a steady course. So just as important as the character of the anti-inflation program the president is due to announce is the question of who will manage it.</br></br>Until a few months ago. a good case could be made for letting a hundred flowers bloom in matters of economic policy. The economy was delicately balanced between inflation and recession. There was no consensus, either in the country or among the experts, as to which was the more likely disease or what the right remedies were.</br></br>By letting his advisers have their say in public, the president may have given the impression of uncertainty. But at least he avoided going over the cliff on the wrong policy.</br></br>Now, however, the primacy of the inflationary danger has asserted itself with a vengeance. Soaring prices are by far the main worry of the American people as a whole. Unless the administration brings them under control, the presidentÛªs re-nomination and reelection are both in doubt.