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Excerpts from Address by George P. Shultz Director, office of Management and Budget before the National Press Club January 6, 1972 There is a persistent and recurring rumor that I am not in favor of economic controls. I'd like to take this opportunity, here and now, to confirm that rumor, I am not now, nor have I ever been, an advocate of a controlled economy. It was essential for the President to institute the wage-price freeze and follow-on program. It has been remarkably successful to date, but as soon as conditions permit, we must return to the free market. It's time for some plain talk about what we want from Phase II and about what is needed to make Phase II work. we want peacetime expansion--more jobs at higher pay, more output at higher profits--and reasonable price stability. And we have the ingredients needed to attain these objectives. We have created a process to help restrain the rise in prices and costs. The method chosen is sound. The freeze worked: it stopped the rise in prices, it changed Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum