Carter Lacks Plan to Attack Inflation, U.S. Ex-Aide Says
A former White House economic adviser said yesterday that President Carter is spending too much time trying to make 1 lie business community happy and not enough time halting inflation.</br></br>Dr. Arthur M. Okun, chairman of the PresidentÛªs Council of Economic Advisers under Lyndon B. Johnson and now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said the While House; has no anti-inflation program. He said he expects economic growth to continue in 1978 and a further reduction in unemployment, hut he said the current 6 per cent inflation rate is more likely to go up than down, unless President Carter does something about it.</br></br>Okun, interviewed on ÛÏMeet the PressÛ (NI3C. WHC), said price inflation wonÛªt go down unless wage inflation goes down, "and you can't solve either of these problems without solving both.Û ÛÏWhat T would like to see.Û Okun said, ÛÏis some kind of an incentive system offering rewards through lower taxes specifically for those business firms and labor groups that volunteer to restrain prices	and</br></br>wages ... O'herwisr- we are going to he stuck with the stagflation swamp tiiat we have been inÛª, with a perpetual motion machine of 8 per cent wage increases and 6 pel cent price increases.Û Okun said he docs not foresee any ÛÏdramatic changeÛ in monetary policy, hut hailed the nomination last week of G. William Miller as chairman of the Fedcial deserve Board.</br></br>Me said Millet'? succession to the post now ludd by Arlhui E. Burns would produce a more coordinated and cooperative relationship between the Pod and the administration, lie added that such cooperation can be