Mind-bendingly complicated and openly mocked, Phase IV, a product of necessity, was born last week. Even its authors have reservations about its chances for success. The latest wage-price control program in the Nixon Administration's 23-month alternately hot and cold war against high living costs is a temporary holding action. It is designed to stem the spread of food shortages while partially holding off the pent-up forces of inflation until they are weakened by waning demand (see box next page).
Though immeasurably better than flabby Phase III and slightly tougher in some ways than the relatively successful Phase II, the latest...