Theodor de Bry’s 1590 engraving of Secoton, from John White’s watercolors. Public domain.
The economy shrank and prices still rose.
If money is tight, a layoff and a higher grocery bill can arrive in the same year.
If you are in the middle, the old rule that a recession would calm prices failed you.
If you have savings, cash lost purchasing power even though business was weak.
A recession ran from late 1969 into November 1970.
Unemployment rose.
Inflation did not leave with it, and that failure made direct controls look usable to the White House.
Source: National Bureau of Economic Research, recession of December 1969 to November 1970; contemporary record of persistent inflation.