WESTERN EUROPE: Life on the Escalator

"Can we control inflation?" asked Britain's Prime Minister Harold Macmillan last week. "It is the problem of our time."

At the street-corner markets of Paris, the price of tomatoes, lettuce and strawberries was up 40% over last month. In West Germany, bread cost 1ยข more. In Spain, where many people have to hold two jobs to live, bus fares were up 33%. In Britain, householders were told that they must pay 8% more for their coal, 10% more for their cooking gas. In an announcement that Britons took as symbolic of the whole trend, the government itself last week announced...

Want the full story?

Subscribe Now

Subscribe
Subscribe

Learn more about the benefits of being a TIME subscriber

If you are already a subscriber sign up — registration is free!