He is so funny. I'm old enough that I recall seeing that when it aired. We really had some bad times under Carter. He was a likeable person in general, but he was totally inept as a president.
Yeah, those inflationary times were the worst...well, we know.
Quoting: Anonymous Coward 80257640 If you were a little older you'd remember runaway inflation started under Gerald Ford and continued INTO the Carter administration who was just as inept.
WHIP INFLATION NOW was literally one of Ford's campaign promises back in '74.
That's like blaming Nixon for Vietnam when Lyndon Johnson was just as guilty if not more so.
Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.
Take off the party colored glasses friend, and see the world as it really is.
Correct
Year Inflation Yearly change
1981 10.33% -3.21%
1980 13.55% 2.29%
1979 11.25% 3.62%
1978 7.63% 1.13%
1977 6.50% 0.76%
1976 5.74% -3.40%
1975 9.14% -1.91%
1974 11.05% 4.88%
The inflation of the mid- to late '70s was neither Ford's nor Carter's fault. Ever hear of the Arab Oil Embargo of 1973?
A barrel of crude oil had cost $2 for decades. Everybody was making good money from those $2.
OPEC was pissed that we'd been so cozy with Israel during the Yom Kippur War. It was "the straw that broke the camel's back" (I'm so funny). It dawned on someone that the world needed their oil more than they needed the $2. I
can't think of the guy's name, but he assured King Faisal that they were the ones with all the leverage. It's not like the world could turn around and boycott OPEC oil, then or now.
Crude oil almost immediately jumped to $12/barrel. Gasoline
had been about 30¢, and it jumped to about 50¢. Something like this reverberates through an economy, and the reverberations tend to continue indefinitely.
Ford tried to lead, showing off his WIN (Whip Inflation Now) buttons. Short of price controls, though, what could he do? When your suppliers jack their prices 25%, patriotism might make you not want to raise
your prices, but then the books don't balance. And then the supplier raises prices again, and you've had to give your employees a big raise, so you have to raise your prices again.
Carter stepped into this mess. He's a smart guy, but he didn't have an answer, either. Moreover, his leadership presence was a bit lacking. Congratulating us on our "national malaise" was an odd move.
Reagan took the helm, and he had a knack for "presiding". Presiding well doesn't solve problems, either, but it does bolster the mood. Paul Volcker steered interest rates into the stratosphere, and while that played hell on the overall economy, it managed to stop the steady rise in prices. Choking off demand, I guess. It worked.
SINCE THEN, they've come up with ways to understate inflation. "The official rate of inflation is 4.4%, so you are probably justified inflating your prices 4.4%. Even though the actual rate is closer to 15%." Their imaginary "marketbasket" of goods apparently doesn't include many groceries.
