Editors’ Summary of the Brookings Papers on Economic Activity – 1974 No 1

Arthur M. Okun and

AMO

Arthur M. Okun

George L. Perry

George L. Perry Senior Fellow Emeritus - Economic Studies

THE FOUR PRINCIPAL ARTICLES AND FOUR REPORTS in this issue of
Brookings Papers on Economic Activity were presented at the thirteenth
conference of the Brookings Panel on Economic Activity held in Washington
on April 25-26, 1974. A number of the papers in this issue deal with the
special problems of inflation today and the way they complicate the conduct
of policy.
The economy lately has been subject to a wide variety of external shocks
affecting the price level, including dollar devaluation, crop failures abroad,
the imposition and then removal of wage and price controls, and the jump
in the price of oil.