Word: pechman
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...other countries, as well as a moderation in commodity prices. Robert R. Nathan, who heads an economic consulting firm in Washington, feels, however, that an effective controls program could reduce inflation by three or four percentage points from current levels. In the absence of tougher Government controls, Joseph A. Pechman of the Brookings Institution sees double-digit inflation continuing well into the second quarter. Pechman raised the point and others agreed that businessmen do not believe Ford when he says that price controls will not be imposed. To beat controls, many businessmen are jacking up prices while they...
...have peaked, yet continue to pull up other prices. Okun sees some of the biggest increases coming in nonunion sectors, as employers voluntarily pay more out of a sense of obligation to inflation-wounded workers and then pass the costs on to customers. In any event, says Pechman, some form of reasonable restraint is needed now in the form of direct and selective intervention by Government, or by next summer "we are going to have general wage and price controls" enforced by a huge OPA-style bureaucracy such as existed during World...
...creating a new Council on Wage and Price Stability, headed by Rush, that will monitor increases and decry those that seem excessive. It has no subpoena, suspension or rollback powers, but these could be added if the council proves ineffective. A surprising number of economists, ranging ideologically from Joseph Pechman, a former adviser to George McGovern, to Milton Friedman, onetime adviser to Barry Goldwater, predict that Ford eventually will feel compelled to revive full wage-price controls, though the President declared at his press conference that "wage-price controls are out, period...
...order to increase profit margins. Raw-material prices continue to soar: last week the island nation of Jamaica announced plans to triple taxes and royalties on bauxite exports. The move will force up aluminum prices in the U.S., which gets 60% of its bauxite from Jamaica. Also, predicts Joseph Pechman, the U.S. is "going to begin to see a wage-price spiral." Wages have been rising at an annual rate of only 6½% to 7%, but Pechman believes that unions in an era of soaring inflation will become much more militant in demanding big raises...
...dirty word to politicians and one that even economists use with some trepidation, partly because it is difficult to define precisely (see box next page). Nonetheless, five of the nine members of TIME'S Board of Economists -Otto Eckstein, Walter Heller, Robert Nathan, Arthur Okun and Joseph Pechman-declare that the U.S. economy is heading into a recession, one that cannot be blamed only on the direct effects of the fuel shortage...