In 1974, with annual inflation raging over 12%, President Gerald Ford introduced WIN (“whip inflation now”) buttons telling Americans:
“To help increase food and lower prices, grow more and waste less. To help save scarce fuel in the energy crisis, drive less, heat less.”
In other words, the responsibility to fix inflation fell to ordinary Americans. It didn’t work – because they didn’t cause it in the first place – and it would be another eight years before Fed Chairman Paul Volcker tamed the inflation beast.