Class Conflict, Corporate Power, and Macroeconomic Policy: The Impact of Inflation in the Postwar Period

When Richard Nixon ran for the presidency in 1968, he declared that inflation was America's number one problem. While opinion polls showed otherwise, an undaunted Nixon set about to reduce inflation and to convince the public of the dangers of rising prices. To help in this effort, the Council of Economic Advisors initiated a study to identify those impacted adversely by inflation. The study, however, was disappointing. According to Herbert Stein, “If anyone was being severely hurt, the available statistics were too crude to reveal it.”

Nixon was not the first, nor was he the last president to warn of the hazards of inflation. Virtually every postwar president since Dwight Eisenhower has warned of the ravages of inflation and perpetuated the, by now, unquestioned belief that inflation exacts a tremendous toll on the standard of living of most, if not all Americans. This belief has in turn allowed policymakers to enact contractionary policies that often impose tremendous human costs on those least able to sustain them in an effort to reduce inflation.

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	May, Ann Mari Professor of Economics Expertise: Political Business Cycles Gender Specialist in Social Sciences Feminist Economics U.S. Economic History Women and Higher Education Economics CBA 349 P.O. Box 880489 University of Nebraska-Lincoln Lincoln, NE 68588-0489, USA Phone: (402) 472-3369 Fax: (402) 472-9700 amay1@unl.edu	May, Ann Mari	Economics