In the period from 1938 to 1968, many inflationary floors were built into the American economy: floors under wages, pensions, and compensation for the unemployed; floors beneath farm prices, steel prices, liquor prices, and milk prices; floors for airline fares, trucking charges, doctors’ bills, and lawyers’ fees. Not all of these floors were erected by public authorities. Many were imposed by corporations, labor unions and professional associations. The creation of regulatory floors without ceilings accelerated a dynamic process called the wage-price spiral by conservatives, and the
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