Galbraith Scores Fed, Proposes Tax Boost: Action Criticized
John Kenneth Galbraith proposed an income tax increase yesterday as a much better way to head off inflation than the recent Federal Reserve Board boost in interest rates, which the Johnson Administration opposed.</br></br>Scorning the FedÛªs traditional independence of Congress and the White House as an ÛÏanachronism," Galbraith suggested a Congressional resolution affirming the PresidentÛªs ultimate authority over Federal Reserve policy.</br></br>Such action, he conceded, would draw ÛÏresounding speeches about the impossibility of entrusting the President w'ith such delicate and important power ÛÓ speeches which, if carried to their logical conclusion, would also have to deny him authority over such vastly more delicate and important matters as nuclear weaponry, Negro rights and relations with the Soviet Union.Û</br></br>The former Ambassador to India and author of "The Affluent SocietyÛ told the Joint Economic Committee of Congress ÛÏit would be silly to suggest that the recent interest rate will do irreparable damage."</br></br>With svelte sarcasm and facile rhetoric, however, he disparaged the FedÛªs recent action as ÛÏvisibly uninformedÛ as well as ÛÏimproper and unwise."