Vernal Express | 1980-01-17 | Page 7 | You can Call me Frank

You Can Call Me Frank Most Americans realize what is the number one reason for their paycheck's inability to keep pace with rising prices. In one word thai cause is inflation. But according to W. Michael Blumenthal, former secretary of Treasury (who was fired by President Carter), the President has never developed "a clear, simple, single economic philosophy" devoted to fighling inflation. A Washington Wash-ington Post article quoted Blumenthal as saying that the administration's inability to come up with one formal attack plan against inflation was rooted in "a basic schizophrenia within the administration." What the nation ended up with was a half-hearted policy that Blumenthal described in the following manner "There has been an effort to fight inflation, but not too hard. It was tighten the belt, but don't cut out any important programs; cut down on government regulation, but don't offend any special interest groups. It made it difficult for the President to stand up and say: 'My economic philosophy is that inflation is the No. 1 problem, and that's what I'm going to stick to.' "