Kicking the Guideposts
they can ÛÏsomehow substitute for the maintenance of fiscal and monetary discipline.Û No proponent of the guideposts is so sanguine, and WalkerÛªs remarks, in this context, will be read as a special plea for interest rates.</br></br>The second critic, Professor John T. Dunlop of Harvard University, wears two hats: teacher and chairman of the Construction Industry Joint Conference, an association of building trades unions and construction contractors.</br></br>Dunlop argued that the guideposts have ÛÏcreated much strife and no stabilizationÛ by encouraging both labor and management to base their bargaining positions on the guideposts rather than realistic appraisals of their strengths.</br></br>But as criteria for non-inflationary wage decisions the guideposts should be interjected in the bargaining process, even if the professional arbitrators, who tend to place a premium on quick selttlements, are discomfited.</br></br>Backed only by the limited ability of the President to exercise moral suasion, the guideposts would establish'norms of price and wage behavior designed to check inflationary pressures. What the chorus of hostile comments indicates is that it is far easier to criticize them than to devise a better method of restraining inflationary appetites in a society that eschews compulsion.