Word: decontrolling
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...Another theory is that he has political ambitions.) It may also explain why he helped the Administration get the natural gas compromise bill through Congress last year−raising questions as to whether the chairman of the Fed should be getting into any subject as controversial as gas decontrol. But earlier this year, when the Administration tried to pressure him into raising interest rates, Miller flatly refused. Such high rates, he insisted, would be "unbecoming, unwise and unnecessary," and would run the risk of deepening the coming recession...
...common view abroad was that the President omitted the two key elements: decontrol of U.S. crude oil prices so that domestic gasoline and heating fuel prices would rise to world levels (Americans still pay less than one half as much for gasoline and fuel oil as Europeans) and an emphasis on expanding nuclear energy. Commented Switzerland's Journal de Geneve: "The President feared, not without reason, that decontrol would push U.S. inflation to an intolerable level. But that also would have been a return to truth in pricing, which is the basis of American capitalism...
...policy and shifts of focus. He has fought first unemployment, then inflation, then the energy war. At one moment Carter has preached a balanced budget and then turned around and sent Congress a health-care plan that would add $24 billion to federal spending. He has said he favors decontrol of energy prices, but has always been reluctant to take such steps...
UNFORTUNATELY NEITHER the decontrol of oil nor the production of petroleum from unconventional sources nor divestiture of the oil companies is likely to reverse the decline in domestic oil production. The argument that decontrol of oil prices would encourage oil exploration does not obscure the fact that "over 2 million wells have been drilled in the United States--four times as many as in all the rest of the noncommunist world combined." Shale oil would cost far more than conventional oil and takes too long to develop--"a production level equal to about half of one percent...
Probably a more efficient measure would be to "ration by price," that is, to free the market and remove gasoline price controls. President Carter has the authority to do that, subject to congressional veto. Decontrol would cause a political storm because prices would immediately rise. Some experts warn that gasoline would soar to $2 a gal., but free market advocates argue that long-term prices would go up much less, by perhaps a few cents or a dime a gal. In any case, three facts are most significant. First, a free market unquestionably would reduce demand by raising the cost...