Word: nonfood
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...historic August surge in prices was not wholly a food phenomenon. Nonfood prices rose at the uncomfortably high rate of .5%, reflecting higher consumer charges for apparel, heating fuel, mortgages, medical care and telephone service, among other economic necessities. The ineluctable result of the across-the-board rise in living costs was to drive down the real spendable income -earnings that have been discounted for inflation-of U.S. workers. Thus, despite a slight increase in wage levels for the month, the real income of factory workers declined...
Meanwhile, consumers are confronted with the prospects of more expense in nonfood areas. The Cost of Living Council last week lifted the freeze on clothing manufacturers, a move that will soon be reflected in the price tags of the new fall lines. Uncontrolled interest rates keep soaring; major banks last week raised their prime lending rate to businessmen from 8¼% to 8½% and let it be known that they will soon lift it again to 8¾%-equaling the record set just before the money crunch of 1969. This is helping pull mortgage rates...
...Most nonfood prices are zooming too. As many as 50% of the families in some suburbs around Stockholm have had to seek special state aid to pay leaping rents. Auto traffic in Barcelona and Madrid now thins noticeably during the last week of each month, because until the next monthly paycheck arrives many Spanish motorists are too broke to buy gasoline at 52? a gallon, up 25% in two years...
Apparently satisfied that he had disposed of part of his price problem, the President took a more activist line on the cost of nonfood commodities, which have begun to rise at a worrisome rate. Wholesale prices of industrial commodities, such as copper, lead, zinc and lumber, jumped 1% last month. In this case, buyer power is definitely not the solution: the increases have occurred largely because manufacturers are scrambling to purchase materials to take care of expected increases in production. So Nixon announced that, to help keep prices down, the Government will sell off some of the $6.5 billion worth...
...Administration that prices can be reined in enough under present conditions. TIME Washington Correspondent Lawrence Malkin reported last week that a survey by the Bureau of Labor Statistics concludes that the consumer price index for 1972 could well rise as much as it did last year (3.4%); more important, nonfood commodities (the area covered by Phase II controls) could well rise 3%. On top of the continuing rises expected for utility rates and interest rates, the prices of manufactured goods are now expected to inch up later this year. At a meeting this week, the Price Commission will examine several...