In the late 1970’s, Republicans blamed the inflation of that era on President Jimmy Carter. They are still doing so and using the same misinformation on Joe Biden. In the 70’s, inflation was a huge problem as it is now… but it was spiraling out of control before Carter was even elected.
The foundation of the inflation in the seventies was built by the massive deficit spending of the Vietnam War by Presidents Johnson and Nixon. Then in August of 1971, Nixon took the US off the gold standard which enabled the Federal Reserve the print unlimited amounts of dollars to pay our debts.
By 1973, inflation was so bad that President Nixon instituted ‘wage-price controls’ for the second time in his Presidency. These price freezes were temporary and were a failure. After Nixon resigned in 1974, inflation continued higher under the Ford Administration. At the time Alan Greenspan was Ford’s Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors. President Ford, Greenspan and others in the Administration wore ‘W.I.N.’ buttons which stood for ‘Whip Inflation Now.’ That is how problematic inflation was…years before Jimmy Carter became President.
By the time Jimmy Carter got in the White House after the 1976 election, inflation was well out of control. Carter didn’t cause it, he inherited it.
Yet, the Republicans successfully convinced the American public it was all Jimmy Carter’s fault. Unfortunately, the much of the American public has short memories and a limited understanding of economics both making them easily manipulated. Just like now.
Presently the Republicans are trying to persuade voters that inflation is Joe Biden’s fault. The fact is, however, inflation is the fault of both political parties and the Federal Reserve. The groundwork for the inflation we are experiencing today was started in earnest at the end of the George W. Bush Administration when the economic system froze up and was subsequently bailed out with billions of newly created dollars provided by massive money printing authorized by both Republicans and Democrats. It continued under President Obama. And it continued under Trump, with more money printing yet for the shutdowns during the pandemic. And, yes it continued during Biden’s first year. The takeaway is there has been massive financial mismanagement by both political parties and the Federal Reserve.
Massive bailouts to save so-called ‘too big to fail banks’ after the 2007/2008 financial collapse, along with near zero interest rates since then have created the mess we are currently in.
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