The US Economy under a second Gerald Ford Term

What would the U.S. Economy look like under a second term of Gerald Ford? From what I know Ford would follow a much looser monetary policy than Carter and he would try but not be sucessful in balancing the budget. Would we still see the recessions of 1980? Also hypothetically how much of an impact would the lack of the '79 Energy Crisis (which might not occur if the Shah of Iran dies before the revolution) be?
 
Ford doesn't influence monetary policy that's the Fed's job. However if he doesn't appointment Volcker stagflation goes well into the 1980s. Ford may handle Iran better, if there is no Energy Crisis the US economy has no recession and is in much better shape. Ford would have a similar economic plan to Carter but be more effective at acting it into policy and getting it through Congress. Maybe a new round of tax cuts too like in his first term, not like Reagan's but enough to give the economy a boost. If Ford is better at pushing for a balanced budget inflation would likely be lower in 1980 and the next President could finish the job and balance the budget when the economy recovers.
 
Would Arthur Burns serve another term as Chairman of the Fed? Or does Ford need to find someone else? Not having a year of G. William Miller might do some good, but would it make up for a longer period of more of the same?
 
I don't think Ford would appoint Volcker. Volcker was focused on fighting inflation, which Ford originally supported but later came around to fighting unemployment. There is a direct correlation to prove this. Here is the unemployment rate between 1974 and 1994 OTL. Volcker was appointed in 1979.
latest_numbers_LNU04000000_1974_1994_Annual+Data_data.gif

Before Volcker was appointed in 1979, the economy was growing at about 5% each year after 1976. What stopped that was the Iranian revolution and the subsequent oil crisis. Never the less, Inflation was increasing as soon as Jimmy Carter took office the inflation rate was about 5% and right before the Iranian revolution began, it slowly increased to 6.8% (http://www.inflationdata.com/inflation/Inflation_Rate/HistoricalInflation.aspx), now I'm not exactly sure what caused it. I'm assuming it was something the Fed did. I'm not familiar with economics, but I think that without the Revolution, inflation will still continue to rise (albeit, more slowly.) and then start to slowly decline once the economy gets back in motion. Obviously, this might overlap in to Ford's successor's term.
 
I'm in favor of working the stag- part of stagflation much more than the -flation part! :)

In conventional terms, growth rate is the single most important economic number (I say conventional terms, because environmental stewardship is important, too, but hard to account for even in approximate numbers).
 
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