POLICY: Recharging the Batteries?

The U.S. economy resembles a car whose battery is running down in the winter cold. It clearly needs a new charge from the incoming Carter Administration—but how much amperage should be poured in? Last week some dollar numbers emerged from separate meetings between Carter and his transition staff, and the incoming President and chief executives of 15 giant companies, including Ford Motor Chairman Henry Ford II and DuPont Chairman Irving Shapiro. The President-elect's advisers were somewhat more modest than the businessmen. In effect, they called for $20 billion in tax cuts and spending increases, while the corporate chiefs—or at...