Faint hearts do not win victories—and President Carter desperately needed an economic victory. Raging inflation was undermining the economy at home; overseas, the plunge in the value of the dollar posed a gigantic threat to the stability of the whole world financial system. Wild routs on the currency and stock exchanges were threatening to make his Stage II anti-inflation program a joke before it ever had a chance to get started.
So Carter made the bold move. He and his aides put together a dollar-rescue plan that amounts to a sharp and startling reversal of previous policies and aims...