NOTE: This will be it for me today for there is a hurricane headed in our direction and I need to make sure the house in good shape to take the punishment.
We Americans are struggling with the high prices of everything from Food to gas….we can blame the government for useless tariffs and such but it actually runs deeper than that premise.
Our presidents have struggled, from time to time, with rising prices and this will delve into what happened and happen was tried….and mostly failed.
The ‘solutions’ seem to be around election time with the hopes that their meager attempts will be met favorably by the voters that were suffering under the crush of rising prices.
Rising prices make angry voters. Small wonder, then, that presidents look for quick ways to tamp down those prices.
The rub is that presidents don’t have the power to reduce inflation. The Federal Reserve Board can influence inflation by raising interest rates, but without precision. In any case, presidents don’t want higher rates, especially in an election season. And always the most powerful operator in the room is markets, not the president or the Fed.
So chief executives resort to trying short-term magic, what one might call “electoral economics.” Look where you may in our history, you see the same result. A bit of prestidigitation may sometimes appear to control prices long enough to help the president. But only sometimes. And the magic never holds long term.
…
In the early 1960s, President John F. Kennedy worried about inflation. Although annual inflation rates did not rise much above 1 percent at the time, wages were rising faster. Kennedy believed that wage increases reflected and caused inflation. In general that wasn’t true. Nonetheless, the president wanted to keep wage growth in line with productivity growth, which averaged about 3 percent per year. He also aimed to limit price hikes to normal cost markups.
In short, the president wanted to push down unruly prices somehow, without being too obvious about the effort.
In January 1962, Kennedy’s Council of Economic Advisers set “guideposts for noninflationary wage and price behavior.” These measures were labeled “guideposts” because the administration understood that Congress would not approve formal price controls.
https://www.coolidgereview.com/articles/presidents-high-prices
So the question can be asked….can presidents actually do anything about rising prices?
No, U.S. presidents cannot directly control or quickly curb rising prices, as inflation is driven primarily by global market forces and independent monetary policy.
- Set prices: Direct price controls or freezes fail long-term and often cause shortages.
- Control the Federal Reserve: The central bank independently manages interest rates to fight inflation.
- Fix global commodities: Daily oil, gas, and grocery prices respond to worldwide supply and demand, not executive orders.
- Command the economy: The massive U.S. market operates mostly through private business and consumer decisions.
- Fiscal policy: Sign or veto spending bills and tax packages, though congressional approval is required and short-term impacts are minimal.
- Regulatory and executive actions: Adjust federal rules on domestic energy leasing or target corporate consolidation through antitrust enforcement, though these effects take years. (Donny loves his EOs….but would he try to use them for good?)
- The bully pulpit: Publicly pressure companies or industries to moderate price hikes, though this relies on persuasion rather than legal enforcement. (This will not happen for Donny loves his corporate leaders….everything he does is for their benefit)
As it stands today the president can only throw crap at the problem and hope it will work itself out before the next election.
I am an old fart and remember the days, the mid-70s, and the fight inflation of the Ford government….and the WIN program….
On October 8, less than two months after becoming president, Ford addressed a joint session of Congress and declared inflation “public enemy number one.” Unlike Nixon, however, Ford avoided formal mandates. Instead, he retreated to moralizing and recommending, a version of Kennedy’s approach.
Ford urged businesses to restrain prices and wages. He encouraged the public to conserve energy and reduce spending to curb demand. The White House launched the “Whip Inflation Now” campaign, complete with red-and-white “WIN” buttons handed out to citizens. To promote anti-inflation ideas, Ford created a Citizens’ Action Committee that included consumer advocates, business executives, labor leaders, economists, and policy experts. The administration also established the Council on Wage and Price Stability.
Ford’s campaign had virtually no effect on prices. If anything, it undermined his administration’s credibility on economic policy. WIN buttons became a national joke. Some Americans wore them upside-down to read “NIM”—for “No Immediate Miracles” or “Need Immediate Money.”
I remember the beginnings of the ‘generic’ food….the cans with white labels ans black printing…..money was saved but the program was a bust just a short 5 months after it began.
This will give you an overview of the attempts by presidents to control prices….but in the end capitalism won out and we were saddled with ever rising food prices….
https://www.coolidgereview.com/articles/presidents-high-prices
We can add Donny to the list of failed programs and the average person struggles and no one will look beyond the markets to settle prices down.
That approach is a cop out….period.
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”