The Economy: Action at Last

For Lyndon Johnson, the time had finally come to do something positive about inflation and tight money. Though faced by rising wages and prices, mounting shortages of workers and materials, and a steadily increasing scarcity of money, the President had for months refrained from taking any major action in the hope that inflation would somehow stay within bounds—at least until the November elections. But inflation would not be held back, and a rising clamor for presidential initiative from both parties convinced Johnson that White House action could no longer be held back either. Last week, acknowledging that the U.S....