Quote from Mercor:
American weakness overseas, weak dollar, carter / Burns (fed) focus on employment and not money supply. By the time Volker took over it was to late and had to chase the money supply curve up. I believe he went to 20% before he could take the excess production out of the economy.
Yeah - money supply and price controls.
The whole "price control" thing happened in 1971. Which was under Nixon.
It was Nixon's attempt to deal with inflation. Why was there inflation under Nixon?
The price controls were first implemented in 1971 - years before the first oil embargo.
That question makes the whole Arthur Burns thing interesting (Fed Chm - 1970/1978).
Much has been written about Nixon's influence on Burns to provide easy credit. Some accounts feel that Nixon simply thought it was right correct thing to do. Others say Nixon pressured Burns for to gain political advantage.
Either way, money supply grew significantly and contributed to inflation.
As "Mercor" points out, Carter replaces Fed Chm Burns with Fed Chm Volcker and Volcker implemented a contraction of money supply.
"Trintytrader" does not seem to be very fond of the change that Volcker brought in, possibly because it was painful.
I think most economists, however, agree that Burns would have had to ultimately do what Volcker did if he was allowed to remain. And the longer Burns had waited, if he had the opportunity to stay around, very likely more damage to the economy.
Painful as it may have been for several years, the change implemented by Volcker ultimately set the table for better times.