As prices rise, some debate whether price controls should be reinstated

搜索

复制

As prices rise, some debate whether price controls should be reinstated

Transcript¹

There's been a storm of debate about an old anti-inflation policy: price controls. So we dust off the history books to see what happened in World War II.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

The latest data show price inflation rose 7% last year. That is a 40-year high. How much could the U.S. government do about this? There was once a time when the United States aggressively intervened to hold down prices, and that led to nasty side effects. Darian Woods and Stacey Vanek Smith from NPR's The Indicator² have a case history from the past.

DARIAN WOODS, BYLINE³: In 1941, the U.S. is frantically⁴ retooling⁵ for war.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Our great Pacific outpost in the Hawaiian Islands is ruthlessly bombed as Japan...

WOODS: And following the Pearl Harbor attack, the U.S. joins World War II. There is a materials shortage, and prices are spiking⁶. But President Franklin Delano Roosevelt has a secret weapon to fight inflation, a new division that would come to be called the Office of Price Administration. The Office of Price Administration is headed by an economist⁷ named Leon Henderson.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

LEON HENDERSON: We intend to move in now on speculators, profiteers, sharpshooters and chislers.

WOODS: Henderson's early approach had been persuasion⁸, voluntary agreements with industry to limit price rises. But that's no longer working. Roosevelt signs the Emergency Price Control Act of 1942. This gives the Office of Price Administration sweeping⁹ powers to enforce price caps and also to administer rations¹⁰. And then as part of a big package to control inflation. President Roosevelt proposes putting that law into action - a cap on all prices across the economy.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

FRANKLIN D ROOSEVELT: We must fix ceilings on prices and rents.

STACEY VANEK SMITH, BYLINE: Shoes, furniture, chicken. Basically, everything in the economy has to stay the same price. While there are some exceptions, this is a massive deal. Gillian Brunet is an economist at Wesleyan University, and she says this helped - a little.

GILLIAN BRUNET: That gets the annual inflation rate down to, like, the 5 to 8% range - so kind of where we are now.

SMITH: That inflation crept in because businesses would find these workarounds. Like, a business would repackage old products as new and claim that these new products needed a new price. Or, you know, they might be lower-quality goods, skimpflation. So the Office of Price administration goes with a new approach.

BRUNET: Actually explicitly¹¹ set prices, you know, went around and said, charge X for this. Charge Y for that.

SMITH: And while inflation did mostly stay in check during the war, there were significant downsides. First, some businesses responded by simply not selling cheaper versions of their products, which was detrimental¹² to people on low incomes. Secondly¹³, without high enough prices to compensate¹⁴ businesses for bringing stuff to people, shortages increased, which brings us to the third downside, the black market.

BRUNET: They had what they called meateasies after the speakeasies of prohibition¹⁵.

WOODS: Meateasy - well, secret butchers.

BRUNET: Yeah, exactly - black market meat sales.

WOODS: Now, after the war, there was this huge wave of consumer spending putting pressure on prices that couldn't move up. And that created shortages. And in 1946, the Republicans won the midterm elections, basically a referendum on the Office of Price Administration, which was soon disestablished.

SMITH: And look. We do have price controls now in the economy. Some states have rent control, for example. But widespread price controls. Those are still frowned upon by many economists¹⁶. Stacey Vanek Smith.

WOODS: Darian Woods, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF MOKHOV'S "SPRING EVENING")

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 indicator   

n.指标；指示物，指示者；指示器

参考例句：

• Gold prices are often seen as an indicator of inflation.黃金价格常常被看作是通货膨胀的指标。
• His left-hand indicator is flashing.他左手边的转向灯正在闪亮。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 frantically   

ad.发狂地, 发疯地

参考例句：

• He dashed frantically across the road. 他疯狂地跑过马路。
• She bid frantically for the old chair. 她发狂地喊出高价要买那把古老的椅子。

5 retooling   

v.（给…）更换工具， （给…）更换机械设备( retool的现在分词 )；改组，革新

参考例句：

• The factory is retooling to start making the new line of cars. 工厂正在重新装备以便开始制造新系列车型。 来自辞典例句
• Among her suggestions: retooling factories to focus on rebuilding America's transportation system. 她的建议包括围绕重新建设美国交通系统这个重心来重组汽车工业。 来自互联网

6 spiking   

n.尖峰形成v.加烈酒于( spike的现在分词 )；偷偷地给某人的饮料加入（更多）酒精（ 或药物）；把尖状物钉入；打乱某人的计划

参考例句：

• High spiking fever with chills is suggestive of a complicating pylephlebitis. 伴有寒战的高热，暗示合并门静脉炎。 来自辞典例句
• We could be spiking our own guns. 我们可能要遭到失败。 来自辞典例句

7 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

8 persuasion   

n.劝说；说服；持有某种信仰的宗派

参考例句：

• He decided to leave only after much persuasion.经过多方劝说，他才决定离开。
• After a lot of persuasion,she agreed to go.经过多次劝说后，她同意去了。

9 sweeping   

adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的

参考例句：

• The citizens voted for sweeping reforms.公民投票支持全面的改革。
• Can you hear the wind sweeping through the branches?你能听到风掠过树枝的声音吗？

10 rations   

定量( ration的名词复数 )； 配给量； 正常量； 合理的量

参考例句：

• They are provisioned with seven days' rations. 他们得到了7天的给养。
• The soldiers complained that they were getting short rations. 士兵们抱怨他们得到的配给不够数。

11 explicitly   

ad.明确地，显然地

参考例句：

• The plan does not explicitly endorse the private ownership of land. 该计划没有明确地支持土地私有制。
• SARA amended section 113 to provide explicitly for a right to contribution. 《最高基金修正与再授权法案》修正了第123条，清楚地规定了分配权。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

12 detrimental   

adj.损害的，造成伤害的

参考例句：

• We know that heat treatment is detrimental to milk.我们知道加热对牛奶是不利的。
• He wouldn't accept that smoking was detrimental to health.他不相信吸烟有害健康。

13 secondly   

adv.第二，其次

参考例句：

• Secondly,use your own head and present your point of view.第二，动脑筋提出自己的见解。
• Secondly it is necessary to define the applied load.其次，需要确定所作用的载荷。

14 compensate   

vt.补偿，赔偿；酬报 vi.弥补；补偿；抵消

参考例句：

• She used her good looks to compensate her lack of intelligence. 她利用她漂亮的外表来弥补智力的不足。
• Nothing can compensate for the loss of one's health. 一个人失去了键康是不可弥补的。

15 prohibition   

n.禁止；禁令，禁律

参考例句：

• The prohibition against drunken driving will save many lives.禁止酒后开车将会减少许多死亡事故。
• They voted in favour of the prohibition of smoking in public areas.他们投票赞成禁止在公共场所吸烟。

16 economists   

n.经济学家，经济专家( economist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The sudden rise in share prices has confounded economists. 股价的突然上涨使经济学家大惑不解。
• Foreign bankers and economists cautiously welcomed the minister's initiative. 外国银行家和经济学家对部长的倡议反应谨慎。 来自《简明英汉词典》