INFLATION: The Shocking Rise in Prices

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Such challenges to Nixon's almost exclusive control over economic policy can only multiply as more and more Americans are reminded by price tags of the bad old pre-freeze days. In their haste to simplify wage and price controls, with which the Administration has never been philosophically comfortable, the President and his advisers allowed the impression to become too widespread that all limits were off. If, as they predict, the result of that miscalculation is only a temporary bulge in inflation, the White House could help matters by brandishing the traditional presidential jawbone with a good deal more gumption than it has so far shown—perhaps pressuring farm groups, feed-lot operators and supermarket executives to mount a "voluntary" campaign to hold down food costs. But if inflation stays high for much longer, more drastic controls will be necessary.

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