Welcome to the Hardcore Husky Forums. Folks who are well-known in Cyberland and not that dumb.
Federal Reserve contemplating price controls of goods
AtomicPiss
Administrator, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 64,567 
in Tug Tavern
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0egPTsvGC0c
Comments
In late July, 1971, Nixon reiterated his adamant opposition to wage and price controls calling them a scheme to socialize America. Yet, less than a month later, in a stunning reversal, he imposed the first and only peacetime wage and price controls in U.S. history. The Nixon tapes, personal tape recordings made during the presidency of Richard Nixon, provide a unique body of evidence to investigate the motivations for Nixon’s stunning reversal. We uncover and report in this paper evidence that Nixon manipulated his New Economic Policy to help secure his reelection victory in 1972. He became convinced that wage and price controls were necessary to grab the headlines away from the defeatist abandonment of the Bretton Woods Agreement and the closing of the U.S. gold window. Nixon understood the impact of his wage and price controls, but chose to trade off longer term economic costs to the economy for his own short-term political gain.
Nixon [February 22, 1971]: ”Here’s my concern about the freeze…There is strong support for a wage board and wage-price controls and particularly from sources like Arthur Burns. … The difficulty with wage-price controls and a wage board as you well know is that the God damned things will not work. They didn’t work even at the end of World War II. They will never work in peacetime.”
Nixon: ”I know the reasons, you do it [wage and price controls] for cosmetic reasons good God! But this is too early for cosmetic reasons.”
Nixon [July 24, 1971] refers to a program proposed by Connally and states that he wants to emphasize ”making America competitive again.”
Connally [July 27, 1971]: ”There is a risk in imposing wage and price controls. No question about it. But there’s a risk if you don’t.”
Connally [August 12, 1971]: ”To the average person in this country this wage and price freeze–to him means you mean business. You’re gonna stop this inflation. You’re gonna try to get control of this economy. …If you take all of these actions…you’re not going to have anybody…left out to be critical of you.”
A few minutes later Nixon agrees to accelerate the [NEP] program.
While Nixon was initially reluctant to accept the wage and price freeze, he soon turned into an enthusiastic supporter: ”As a matter of fact, I’d like the freeze on right through the election.” He worried that the goal of a 2-3 % inflation rate by the end of 1972 would not be achieved, but the design for the program was such that Nixon could plausibly deny responsibility for any failure.
Ironically, Nixon's actions also helped galvanize an emerging libertarian movement opposed to the bipartisan welfare-warfare state. "I remember the day very clearly," Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, recalled in 2001, saying the events of Aug. 15, 1971, drove the reluctant young obstetrician into politics.
For years, Paul waged a one-man war against economic nostrums and presidential command and control. Lately, though -- with the rise of the Tea Party and his strong showing in the Ames straw poll -- he's not looking so lonely anymore.