OPEC and Volker

[Paul Davidson <pdavidson@xxxxxxx>]

John Harvey raises the question  "did he [Volker] make a conscious link in
US economic activity he was causing and the strength of OPEC?"

Whether Volker made a "conscious link" or not  you will have to ask Volker
-- but he clearly wanted to prevent  explicit and/or  implicit COLAs in
labor- management relations -- and in firm -customer relations from passing
on the 1978-9 oil  price spike.  If he could do this, then , by definition
, he would take the  demand steam out of the OPEC's rent seeking ability.

Paul
Paul Davidson
Holly Chair of Excellence in Political Economy
Editor, JOURNAL OF POST KEYNESIAN ECONOMICS [JPKE]
Economics Department -- 523 SMC
University of Tennessee
Knoxville, Tennessee 37996-0550
email: Pdavidson@xxxxxxx;   phone: (865)974-4221;    fax: (865) 974-4601
http://econ.bus.utk.edu/Davidson.html