Inflation Policy Hit By Burns: Mild Controls Urged to Avert Serious Slump
HOT SPRINGS, Va., May 18ÛÓFederal Reserve Board Chairman Arthur F. Burns today broke with the Nixon administration on the issue of wage-price restraint by recommending a mild form of voluntary control to help curb persistent inflation.</br></br>Burns said that the administrationÛªs exclusive reliance on monetary and fiscal measures to handle todayÛªs inflationary problems could ÛÏincrease greatly the risks of a very serious business recession.Û</br></br>The Federal Reserve chairman came up with this unexpected recommendation in a major policy speech at the American Bankers Association 1 Monetary Conference, which opened here this morning.</br></br>President Nixon has repeatedly stated his opposition to engaging in direct pressures on management and labor to restrain price and wage ad-1 vances. This effort, sometimes called an ÛÏincomes policy,Û was again viewed with skepticism here today by Paul W.</br></br>George Romney, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, criticized the administrationÛªs economic policies and said that exclusive reliance on fiscal-monetary policies is insufficient to curb inflation without intolerable increases in unemployment and losses in real output. He urged the administration to pay more attention to excessive wage and price increases.