Nixon Group Assails Bond Rate Ceiling
A Cabinet committee said yesterday the 4t2 per cent interest rate ceiling on Treasury bonds which Congress refused to raise is weakening tiie Government's ability to fight inflation.</br></br>The committee, headed by Vice President Richard M. .Nixon, said the ceiling plus the big budget deficit in the past fiscal year have thrown too much of the anti-inflation burden on Government in its efforts to restrain credit expansion.</br></br>The committee made the statement in the third of a series of papers on problems of the NationÛªs economic growth and price stability. The chief topic was how to manage the Federal budget, the huge national debt, and credit supply to promote economic growth without inflation.</br></br>Other committee members include the Secretaries of the Treasury, Commerce, Agriculture, Labor and the Postmaster General, the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers and W. Allen Wallis, executive vice chairman of the group.</br></br>The 4'-2 per cent interest ceiling applies to new sales of Treasury bonds maturing in five years or more. The Administration, pointing out that longterm interest rates exceed 4m per cent, asked Congress this year to lift the ceiling to permit the Treasury to do some long-term borrowing.