Nixon’s Ghost Is More ’74 Inflation Than ’68 Chicago
Democrats in the Windy City and central bankers in Jackson Hole are haunted by the anti-inflation failures of half a century ago.
Richard Nixon with economic advisers Milton Friedman, at his immediate right, and Arthur Burns, left.
Source: AP Photo
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Do you remember President Richard Nixon? It’s half a century since he resigned the presidency, but his biggest decisions still reverberate. That’s especially true of the debate over inflation, which is now its most heated since the 1970s. That’s not a good thing. Inflation will be at the center of debate this week, in a crowded convention hall in Chicago and the open spaces of Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Those debates will have little or nothing in common. This pressing problem is being argued along two tracks — one technical, one political — and neither inspires confidence.