Dear Editor
Dear Editor Inflation Issue Thank you for The New Leader's excellent special issue. "Inflation" (February 22). As your articles point out, almost everybody except the Administration has u>me to...
...Cambridge, Mass...
...In my view, the most important step necessary to carry the discussion further is to be more precise and specific about the sorts of activities and policies appropriate to particular sectors which would be pursued under an '"incomes policy...
...I found Abe Raskin's piece the most informative and professional, and Michael Harrington's characteristically provocative--although I am bound to deplore the remoteness from what the French speak of as the serieux reflected in his tilting at Washington reporters of the stamp of Hobart Rowen and Edwin Dale...
...Because of the prolonged period during which these inflationary pressures were nurtured, it is not surprising that a deep-seated expectation of inflation developed...
...As Senator Charles Percy (R.-Ill...
...Harolo C. Passer Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Affairs The special issue of THE New Leader presents an interesting range of views on the inflation problem...
...If we hope to continue making progress against inflation and at the same time promote orderly economic growth, it is essential that we follow steady and even-handed fiscal and monetary policies...
...This expectation became so ingrained into the attitudes and plans of consumers and businessmen that it has been difficult to curb the inflation as quickly as we would have liked...
...I enjoyed reading the articles of the special issue, a number of whose authors are known to me personally...
...Henry S. Reuss Member of Congress, Wisc...
...As I am sure you know, this Administration regards continued progress in reducing the rate of inflation as a matter of crucial national importance...
...I even found Harvey Segals piece...
...I am hopeful that the efforts of the National Commission on Productivity will help focus greater public attention on this very important subject...
...The sooner the United States begins to come to grips with the hard realities of the wage-price problem, the better...
...New York City Eliot Janeway One general aspect of the special issue of The New Leader that I found very interesting was the differing emphasis and importance assigned by the individual authors to what they believe are the "causes" and "solutions" for our present inflationary situation...
...I was amused by Harrington's reference to our interchange on TV, although I would feel that my status was upgraded if my first name had been spelled right...
...But this should be regarded as a longhaul operation unlikely to yield miracles...
...Charls E. Walker Under Secretary of the Treasury I believe you have done a fine job in expressing various points of view oil what is without question the most serious problem facing the country at this time...
...In other words, this has been a classical inflation fueled by economic policies of the Federal Government and the Federal Reserve...
...The importance of productivity was mentioned in your special issue, but it was not discussed as thoroughly as I think it deserved to be...
...so my reading of the special issue was biased from the start...
...What is less well known is that wage-price policies have had a considerable measure of success in the countries of Western Europe...
...As I explained during the program, the steel mills and other victims of the present squeeze are posting price increases but actually settling for price cuts...
...In its December 1970 report on inflation, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) concluded: "Despite the difficulties, the search for effective price-incomes policies should not be abandoned...
...I fear that I have been much too involved (when away from my academic administration post) to try to write for public discussion...
...What should be done with hospital costs...
...But the level of technical economic and popular discourse is almost useless for dealing with the practical problems of developing or putting into effect such policies...
...The OECD report sets forth in detail the history of wage-price measures that have been attempted "with varying degrees of success, in the United Kingdom, France and Finland and more recently in the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Ireland...
...President Nixon fully recognizes this, and for that reason has proposed a budget for fiscal year 1972 that is expansionary but not inflationary...
...Stony Brook, N.Y...
...The cause of serious journalistic analysis would be furthered if instead such intelligent commentary were addressed to the policy-making sources for the news rather than to the mere mouthpieces...
...A critical element in this process is a recognition of the relationship between productivity and wage increases...
...As your articles point out, almost everybody except the Administration has u>me to the conclusion that fiscal and monetary policies are by themselves insufficient to combat the problem...
...It is not that this differing emphasis is so unusual or unexpected, but rather that it indicates we should not expect situations of high unemployment combined with rising prices to be solved by simplistic remedies...
...Our return to full employment and stable prices will be hastened if business and labor, in their price and wage decisions, respond to the prospects for less inflation in the months and years ahead...
...Money Is Still the Answer," instructive and well done, though I reject its policy conclusions as well as the outmoded assumptions upon which they sit...
...Washington, D.C...
...John T. Dunlop David A. Wells Professor of Political Economy, Harvard University I always enjoy listening to or reading what Robert Lekachman has to say...
...In the short run, temporary recourse to some form of price and/or wage control may be justified in the framework of a suitable overall program to deal with an acute inflationary crisis...
...Washington, D.C...
...Last June President Nixon established the National Commission on Productivity, instructing its members to find ways of increasing productivity that would help achieve price stability, healthy growth and a rising standard of living...
...confirmed, the talk about price controls is frightening corporations into publishing announcements of price increases which, in fact, they are unable to make stick in their dealings with the customers...
...What specifically should be done in the construction industry...
...It is conceivable that increases in productivity greater than the historical average could provide a partial answer to the so-called trade-off problem between lower unemployment and rising prices...
...Harrington could also have clarified the present war of words about inflation if he had reported my point in its entirety...
...New York City Henry A. Correa President, ACF Industries...
...Charles Hoffman Professor of Economics, State University of New York I have read your entire "Inflation" issue and hasten to congratulate you on making this responsible effort to come to grips with what I regard as the forgotten issue for serious American journalism...
...I cannot stress enough how important it is to make the public aware of inflaton, particularly of the fact that the present extremely high labor settlements are really the basic cause rather than financial management...
...Washington, D.C...
...The positive note Bob's "Introduction" struck was more or less sustained throughout...
...AH in all the issue was of quite good quality and contributed to a fuller understanding of the knotty questions of dealing with inflation...
...They resulted from pursuing expansionary fiscal and monetary policies at the same time that we were waging a costly war in Southeast Asia...
...The recent inflationary conditions did not arise overnight...
...Nevertheless, although inflation is not yet fully under control, progress has been made...
...What criteria for wage and prices or bids...
...The 1972 budget, therefore, will help to bring us to our goal of full employment and stable prices...
Vol. 54 • April 1971 • No. 7
