Title: Jimmy Carter's economy : policy in an age of limits /
Authors: Biven, W. Carl.
Publisher: University of North Carolina Press,
Year: 2002
Subjects: Carter, Jimmy,; United States Economic policy; United States Economic conditions; United States Politics and government; United States Economic policy; United States Economic conditions
Abstract: Publisher description: The massive inflation and oil crisis of the 1970s damaged Jimmy Carter's presidency. In Jimmy Carter's Economy, Carl Biven traces how the Carter administration developed and implemented economic policy amid multiple crises and explores how a combination of factors beyond the administration's control came to dictate a new paradigm of Democratic Party politics. Jimmy Carter inherited a deeply troubled economy. Inflation had been on the rise since the Johnson years, and the oil crisis Carter faced was the second oil price shock of the decade. In addition, a decline in worker productivity and a rise in competition from Germany and Japan compounded the nation's economic problems. The resulting anti-inflation policy that was forced on Carter included controlling public spending, limiting the expansion of the welfare state, and postponing popular tax cuts. Moreover, according to Biven, Carter argued that the ambitious policies of the Great Society were no longer possible in an age of limits and that the Democratic Party must by economic necessity become more centrist.
Contents: How it ended : the 1980 campaign -- How it began : the 1976 campaign -- The new administration : the process of economic advice -- The stimulus package -- The Mondale Mission and the London Summit -- Strategy for inflation -- The Bonn Summit -- Bonn and oil : the internal debate -- The worsening inflation -- Government actions and inflation -- Enter Paul Volcker -- Jimmy Carter and the age of limits.