Government Intervention in the Inflation Process: The Econometrics of "Self-Inflicted Wounds"

This paper presents a single reduced-form inflation equation that can explain both the variance and acceleration of inflation during the 1970s.Inflation is explained by four sets of factors. Aggregate demand enters through the lagged output ratio and the growth rate of nominal GNP. The adjustment of inflation to changes in aggregate demand is limited by the role of inertia in the inflation process, expressed as the dependence of the rate of change of prices on its own past values. Two types of supply-side elements enter. Government intervention directly altered the price level during the Nixon control era, and in addition the government has aggravated the inflation problem by what have been called "self-inflicted wounds," including increases in the effective social security tax rate and effective minimum wage. Also there have been external supply shocks that are outside of the immediate control of the government, including changes in the relative prices of food and energy, changes in the growth rate of productivity, and changes in the foreign exchange value of the dollar. Considerable attention is given to alternative methods of estimating the impact of direct episodes of government intervention In the price-setting process, particularly during the Nixon controls. We find that such episodes have been futile. Because of their futility, these intervention episodes can be regarded as "self-inflicted wounds," like the payroll tax and minimum wage changes that normally are described by this term.

The Variance and Acceleration of Inflation in the 1970s: Alternative Explanatory Models and Methods

The paper attributes the behavior of U.S. inflation to four sets of factors: aggregate demand shifts; government intervention in the form of the Nixon price controls and changes in the social security tax rate and the effective minimum wage; external supply shocks that include the impact of the changing relative prices of food and energy, the depreciation of the dollar, and the aggregate productivity slowdown: and inertia that makes the inflation rate depend partly on its own lagged values. Considerable attention is given to alternative methods of measuring the impact of government intervention, including the Nixon controls, Kennedy- Johnson guideposts, and the Carter pay standards. The results imply that direct intervention has been futile, since the guidelines and pay standards had no effect at all on inflation, while the Nixon-era controls had only a temporary impact that stabilized both the inflation rate and the level of real output. Some previous studies have had a problem in explaining why inflation was so rapid in 1974 and have been forced to conclude that the termination of the Nixon controls raised prices more than the imposition of controls had lowered them. We find that much of the explanation of rapid inflation in 1974 is the same as that in 1979-80: the shortfall of productivity growth below its ever-slowing trend rate of growth raised business costs and forced-extra price increases, and the depreciation of the dollar in 1971-73 and 1978 boosted the prices of exports and import substitutes, Rapid demand growth, the 1979-80 oil shock, the depreciation of the dollar, the productivity slow- down, and payroll tax increases all help to explain why the inflation rate accelerated between 1976 and 1980 by much more than was generally expected two or three years ago.

In-situ materials processing systems and bioregenerative life support systems interrelationships

The synergy and linkages between bioregenerative life support systems and the materials produced by in-situ materials processing systems was investigated. Such systems produce a broad spectrum of byproducts such as oxygen, hydrogen, processed soil material, ceramics, refractory, and other materials. Some of these materials may be utilized by bioregenerative systems either directly or with minor modifications. The main focus of this project was to investigate how these materials can be utilized to assist a bioregenerative life support system. Clearly the need to provide a sustainable bioregenerative life support system for long term human habitation of space is significant

Overview and evolution of the LeRC PMAD DC Testbed

Since the beginning of the Space Station Freedom Program (SSFP), the Lewis Research Center (LeRC) has been developed electrical power system test beds to support the overall design effort. Through this time, the SSFP has changed the design baseline numerous times, however, the test bed effort has endeavored to track these changes. Beginning in August 1989 with the baseline and an all DC system, a test bed was developed to support the design baseline. The LeRC power measurement and distribution (PMAD) DC test bed and the changes in the restructure are described. The changes includeed the size reduction of primary power channel and various power processing elements. A substantial reduction was also made in the amount of flight software with the subsequent migration of these functions to ground control centers. The impact of these changes on the design of the power hardware, the controller algorithms, the control software, and a description of their current status is presented. An overview of the testing using the test bed is described, which includes investigation of stability and source impedance, primary and secondary fault protection, and performance of a rotary utility transfer device. Finally, information is presented on the evolution of the test bed to support the verification and operational phases of the SSFP in light of these restructure scrubs

The development of test beds to support the definition and evolution of the Space Station Freedom power system

Since the beginning of the Space Station Freedom Program (SSFP), the Lewis Research Center (LeRC) and the Rocketdyne Division of Rockwell International have had extensive efforts underway to develop test beds to support the definition of the detailed electrical power system design. Because of the extensive redirections that have taken place in the Space Station Freedom Program in the past several years, the test bed effort was forced to accommodate a large number of changes. A short history of these program changes and their impact on the LeRC test beds is presented to understand how the current test bed configuration has evolved. The current test objectives and the development approach for the current DC Test Bed are discussed. A description of the test bed configuration, along with its power and controller hardware and its software components, is presented. Next, the uses of the test bed during the mature design and verification phase of SSFP are examined. Finally, the uses of the test bed in operation and evolution of the SSF are addressed

What Happened with No-Till in 1988

No-till (NT) received some bad publicity in 1988 in Kentucky and throughout the Midwest,especially during the early part of last summer\u27s drought. Some farmers found that corn yields were lower with NT than with conventional tillage (CT). However, others observed that the NT corn recovered faster and grew better than CT corn following the rains. Data from Kentucky and Nebraska tend to support this latter observation