Poor Larry Roos

I've been reading through these transcripts for awhile now, but I continue to be amazed at the tone of the discussions over at the FOMC in 1977-79. In September the Committee learns that inflation, which had been bouncing around 5-6 percent in 1977, had risen throughout 1978 and in the second quarter had reached 10.7 percent. Now the Committee was looking at a world where success was getting inflation to 7 percent instead of 8 percent. And Larry Roos flips his lid once again:

MR. ROOS. I have a question, Mr. Chairman, and it's not asked in a cantankerous vein. [OF COURSE HE'S CANTANKEROUS - WHO CAN BLAME HIM?] But I'm concerned. As we went around the table, we all seemed to recognize that we do face a 7-1/2 to 8 percent rate of inflation now. Do we as a group feel that this is preordained because of circumstances that we can't control? I'm concerned that we seem to feel well, it may be 8 percent, and if it's 8 percent we've done our job well. I'm really not trying to be critical, but is our monetary policy responsibility such that we should maybe discuss whether we're satisfied to see the economy drift into an 8 percent inflation rate? And if not, are there things that we can do to affect this? I really ask that in a genuine, innocent, and physically recovering vein. Are we in any way the masters of what happens, or are we merely observers on the sidelines? I'm lost.

CHAIRMAN MILLER. I take the fifth.

MR. PARTEE. I don't want to comment.

I wonder if this is how the White House meetings on the Iraq war have been going.