Free Republic

Remember "TARP," "Too Big to Fail," "Government Motors," "pay czar," the buzzwords of the Bush-Obama era? They reflected a disturbing trend toward presidential interference in economic life. Forty years ago this week, President Richard Nixon showed us just how dangerous unchecked executive power can be to the free-enterprise system. On Aug. 15, 1971, in a nationally televised address, Nixon announced, "I am today ordering a freeze on all prices and wages throughout the United States." After a 90-day freeze, increases would have to be approved by a "Pay Board" and a "Price Commission," with an eye toward eventually lifting controls...

May 17, 2007, 6:02 a.m. Politicians Set Their PricesThe Democratic Congress seems intent on reviving the worst ideas of our past. By Carrie Lukas Apparently some lessons we must relearn. One might assume our disastrous economic flirtation with socialism in the 1970s — never mind the sorry record of command-and-control economics in the former Soviet bloc — would have buried the concept of government wage- and price-controls for at least a generation. Yet this Congress appears intent on resurrecting the worst policies of the past. Price controls have superficial appeal. The average gas-price rose more than 10 percent last...