Joe Biden criticises snack makers for ‘shrinkflation rip-off’

pinkdrunkenelephants@lemmy.cafe to News@lemmy.world – 259 points –
Joe Biden criticises snack makers for ‘shrinkflation rip-off’
theguardian.com
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That has never stopped presidents before. In response to inflation in 1971 President Nixon issued an executive order making it illegal to raise prices for several months and before him FDR went even farther with rationing and controlling wages.

Inflation is actually super easy to control. You just need to be willing to threaten business leaders with serious jail time.

Yes, and we see how that worked. The inflation in the 1970s was crazy

Literally straight from the link I just posted:

In 1971, President Richard Nixon issued Executive Order 11615 (pursuant to the Economic Stabilization Act of 1970)

Per the ESA of 1970:

The Economic Stabilization Act of 1970 (Title II of Pub. L.Tooltip Public Law (United States) 91–379, 84 Stat. 799, enacted August 15, 1970,[2] formerly codified at 12 U.S.C. § 1904) was a United States law that authorized the President to stabilize prices, rents, wages, salaries, interest rates, dividends and similar transfers[3] as part of a general program of price controls within the American domestic goods and labor markets.

And also from the link I just posted:

During the 1930s, the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) created the National Recovery Administration, that set prices and created codes of "fair practices".

Per the NIRA of 1933:

The National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933 (NIRA) was a US labor law and consumer law passed by the 73rd US Congress to authorize the president to regulate industry for fair wages and prices that would stimulate economic recovery.

It helps to read sources that people provide for you, before you respond. The long and the short of everything I just showed you, and that you confirmed, is that in the two most famous cases of price controls in the 20th century, Congress explicitly authorized the Executive Branch to do so.

Inflation is actually super easy to control. You just need to be willing to threaten business leaders with serious jail time.

Ok Mao.

Well TIL, I always thought that executive orders were a way to bypass Congress. I know that there was a Democratic Congress in 1971, I wonder why they rubber stamped that for Nixon.

First off, inflation doubled between 1965 and 1970, as it hit 5.5% in 1970. Then, the act was seen as “a political dare,” according to top Nixon official George Shultz — the Democrats thought Nixon wouldn’t use the powers they’d granted him, but he called their bluff. Republicans accused them of using it as an election year ploy to make it look like they were seriously fighting inflation. Democrats held Congress later that year, so in that way perhaps it helped, but they'd been in control since 1955, so their grip on power was pretty firm.

Nixon initially refused to use his authority, but then a year after the ESA's passage inflation kept rising at a break-neck pace, and he started the Nixon Shock, which helped him get reelected with 520 electoral votes in 1972. So in that way, the pressures Nixon was facing were a lot like the pressures Biden's currently facing. As it turns out, however, inflation kept rising through the mid 70s, and what was initially a political success, when paired with the 1973 oil crisis, quickly caused the 73-75 recession which was marred by stagflation. So it sounded good on paper, but wound up royally fucking the entire middle and working classes in multiple countries, as the unemployment rate nearly doubled.