The Challenge of Inflation
During the campaign, Jimmy Carter spoke on practically every subject in. this world, and a few in the next. But notÛÓat least not in a systematic way-on inflation.</br></br>The major speech prepared on inflation was never given, and an eight-point program based on the speech and' released on the campaign plane was almost universally ignored. So it is not surprising that businessmen are nervous and there is a tendency to see a collision shaping up between the President-elect and the sagacious chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, Arthur Burns.</br></br>But in fact an analysis of the original speech shows that Carter takes the inflationary problem seriously indeed. It seems equally clear that Mr. Burns, far from seeking a shoot-out with the new administration, is moving toward a position of accommodation.</br></br>The basic premise of the original speech prepared for Carter is that inflation is a deadly serious problem. ÛÏCurbing the disease of inflation will be one of the biggest challenges facing the next President of the United States,Û is its opening line. The speech further says: ÛÏInflation has been a national disaster. It has deprived the American peo-, pie and, indeed, the whole world of the</br></br>reliance on the soundness of the dollar that is so vital to our economic system. ,'It has destroyed the value of hard-earned pay increases... forced people to... lower their standard of living... defrauded the small saver... imposed a huge human toll." The slow-growth policy of the Ford administration for dealing with inflation was, of course, rejected because it cost so much in unemployment and underused productive capacity. Instead, the speech proposed an eight-point program for dealing directly with inflation in a way that would not diminish employment or slow down economic growth. The eight points were as follows: