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Some elements of this program, notably credit controls and broad tax cuts, are totally unacceptable to the Administration. But there are areas of possible compromise. Ford, Greenspan and Treasury Secretary Simon are not opposed to some easing of monetary policy. Indeed, they hope that budget cutting will free the Federal Reserve to be less tightfisted.
Federal Reserve Chairman Arthur Burns and Presidential Counsellor Kenneth Rush favor more Administration "jawboning" against big wage and price boosts. President Ford himself asked for and signed into law last week a bill creating a new Council on Wage and Price Stability, headed by Rush, that will monitor increases and decry those that seem excessive. It has no subpoena, suspension or rollback powers, but these could be added if the council proves ineffective. A surprising number of economists, ranging ideologically from Joseph Pechman, a former adviser to George McGovern, to Milton Friedman, onetime adviser to Barry Goldwater, predict that Ford eventually will feel compelled to revive full wage-price controls, though the President declared at his press conference that "wage-price controls are out, period."
Jobs in the Zoo. Conservatives as well as liberals have embraced the idea of funneling federal money to states, cities and counties so that they could hire the unemployed for public-service jobs, as library clerks, garbage collectors, tree trimmers, zookeepers, among many others. Arthur Burns has proposed a $4 billion-a-year program, the first $1 billion to be triggered when unemployment hits 5.5%, the rest when it crosses the 6% mark. Though Ford has not specifically endorsed the proposal, he confirmed that it is under consideration and added that his approach to the idea will be one of "compassion and action."
Ford's program thus is flexible and still open to change. His approach of soliciting ideas from sharp critics as well as official advisers is admirable; the economy's woes are so complex that no idea for healing them should go ignored. But time for formulating a complete program is rapidly running out. As the stock-market collapse vividly illustrates, public fright and worry are themselves becoming a powerful economic force —and they feed on uncertainty.
* Greenspan has resigned his membership on TIME'S Board of Economists.