WI: Nixon starts regular payments to families of burglars soon after, Watergate never revealed.

Yeah, for a month or two. So Nixon loses 2-3 small strongly dem-leaning states in the 1972 election and "McGovern wins" timelines are say 2x more common on TTL's version of AH.com? Yawn.
 
Macroeconomics: Principles and Policy, 11th ed.
By William Baumol, Alan Blinder, 2009

https://books.google.com/books?id=w...ting wage and price controls in 1971"&f=false

'Faced with persistent inflation, President Richard Nixon stunned the nation by instituting wage and price controls in 1971, the first time this tactic had ever been employed in peacetime. The controls program held inflation in check for a while. But inflation worsened dramatically in 1973, mainly because of an explosion in food prices caused by poor harvests around the world. . . '
The Nixon administration with John Connally as Treasury Secretary also went off the nominal gold standard in 1971 and moved from largely fixed to floating exchange rates.
 
https://books.google.com/books?id=h...on of Petroleum Exporting Countries "&f=false

' . . . A war between Israel and the Arab nations [Oct. '73] precipitated a quadrupling of oil prices by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). . . '

' . . . With both inflation and unemployment unusually virulent in 1974 and 1975, the press coined a new term—stagflation—to refer to the simultaneous occurrence of economic stagnation and rapid inflation. Conceptually, what was happening in this episode is that the economy's aggregate supply curve, which normally moves outward from one year to the next, shifted inward instead. . . '
Stagflation, which the press usually treated as this huge, juicy mystery, but no mystery at all. The economy's overall supply curve shifts inward.
 
P&B%2026.11%20Decrease%20Aggregate%20Supply.jpg

Stagflation following surge in the price of oil.

The Supply Curve shifts inward and intersects the Demand Curve at a place of both lower GDP and higher price.
 


Whether we're at a flat or steep part of Supply Curve.

If we're at a flat part of the curve, we can do things to juice the economy such as quick tax cuts.

If we're at a steep part, however, attempts to juice the economy will lead to considerably more inflation and only a little more GDP.
 
President Richard Nixon

Address to the Nation [Second Address] About National Energy Policy.
November 25, 1973


http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=4051

' . . . to increase the supply of heating oil that will be available this winter, we must adjust production schedules and divert petroleum which might normally go for the production of gasoline . . . the amount of gasoline which refiners distribute to wholesalers and retailers will be reduced across the Nation by 15 percent. . . '

' . . . the third step will be the establishment of a maximum speed limit for automobiles of 50 miles per hour nationwide [inter-city buses and trucks allowed 5 miles per hour faster] as soon as our emergency energy legislation passes the Congress. . . '

' . . . The fifth step involves cutting back on outdoor lighting . . . we are already planning right here at the White House to curtail such lighting that we would normally have at Christmastime, . . . '

' . . . What I have called Project Independence 1980 [Emphasis added] is a series of plans and goals set to insure that by the end of this decade, Americans will not have to rely on any source of energy beyond our own. . . '
One could almost say that President Nixon is lifting a page from future potential President Carter!

The highway speed for cars became 55 mph, which had the very happy side effect of saving lives.

And if anyone has some remembrances or sources about the de-emphasizing of Christmas lighting that would be some interesting cultural history. Thanks in advance. :)
 

youtube: KABC-7 KNBC-4 1973 Gas Shortage Misc Breaks.

Monday, Sept 24, 1973

The Cost of Living Council is expected to raise the price of gas at the pump by 1 to 3 cents by the end of the week.

Gas station owners had been complaining, very reasonably, that they face allowed wholesale increases but were not allowed to pass the costs on. Some station owners were basically saying, hey, we can't afford to either stay open or shut down.

There's also a Monday Night Football promo, a promo for the cop show "The Rookies," and a commercial for rotary-engine Mazdas!
 
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older fellow talking is Arthur C. Clarke

youtube: One day, a computer will fit on a desk (1974)

And on this one, no, Arthur's not fully predicting the Internet. He's talking about having a home console that can tap into a central repository of data. He's not anticipating that we're all going to be publishers and filmmakers (if you want to be!)

And, please notice, all this technology, and yet the percentage of people with middle-class jobs or above has declined since the mid-'70s.
 
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