American history

Stagflation

In the late 1960s it was apparent to some that this juggernaut of economic growth was slowing down, and it began to become visibly apparent in the early 1970s.

Stagflation gripped the nation, and the government experimented with wage and price controls under President Nixon. Due to insolvency, in 1971, President Nixon closed the gold window at the Federal Reserve, taking the United States entirely off the gold standard and bringing the Bretton Woods system to an end.

President Gerald Ford introduced the slogan, "Whip Inflation Now" (WIN). In 1974, productivity shrunk by 1.5%, though this soon recovered.

In 1976, Jimmy Carter won the Presidency. Carter would later take much of the blame for the even more turbulent economic times to come, though some say circumstances were outside his control. Inflation continued to climb skyward. The United States developed a trade deficit. Productivity growth was pitiful, when not negative.

Interest rates remained high, with the prime reaching 20% in January 1981; Art Buchwald quipped that 1980 would go down in history as the year when it was cheaper to borrow money from the Mafia than the local bank.

According to a Gallup Organization poll, Carter ended his term with a low 28% approval rating. A C-SPAN survey of historians ranked Carter at 33rd of 41 presidents in the category of economic management; a C-SPAN survey of viewers ranked Carter at dead last.

One positive aspect of the period is that unemployment dropped mostly steadily from 1975 to 1979, although it then began to rise sharply.

This period also saw the increased rise of the environmental and consumer movements, and the government established new regulations and regulatory agencies such as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the Food and Drug Administration, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and others.