"Get Out of Debt"

Fortnight ago the Federal Reserve Board clamped down on installment sales (TIME, Aug. 25). This week, in the course of explaining that order, FRB Chairman Marriner S. Eccles forecast a new one. "The public should be fully aware," he said, "that the regulation is subject to change ... as economic conditions require a further dampening of buying power." Now is the time, said he, for wage earners to "get out of debt."

No one who knew Mr. Eccles was surprised at his warning. Himself the No. 1 spend-in-depression, save-in-boom exponent, he has lately also been an ardent supporter of Leon Henderson's efforts to stop inflation by saving the consumer from himself. To Henderson, the 18-month limit on time sales of consumers' durable goods looks generous. Henderson had already persuaded Eccles to include furniture in his list of controlled goods. Now he pushed him into threatening still sharper restrictions.

When & where the "further dampening" will occur depends: on how effective the current controls are, on how punishing a tax bill Congress passes, on how many defense bonds consumers buy, on how frugally the U.S. public can be persuaded to act. For Mr. Eccles, inflation's causes and cure are as broad as the U.S. economy.

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