As gas inches up to (and past in some places like Los Angeles) $4.00 a gallon, I remembered the last time there was a major outcry over prices at the pump. In 1973 the major culprit were the Oil companies and the major culprit now appears to be . . . yep, the oil companies.

Granted, the situation in the Middle East is uneasy at best, but it was in 1973 as well. However, in 1973 we weren't used to it. America enjoyed a seemingly limitless source of energy and oil and the crisis that confronted us then was pretty dramatic. So dramatic that NBC News devoted an entire 3 hours of Primetime programming to covering the story. Something that would never happen today. But in 1973 it was cause for major concern.

So today I'm going to run that entire show, all three hours. It's split up over three players and, even though I doubt you'll want to sit around and listen to it online, you will no doubt be better off downloading it and listening to it over several beers.

The story goes like this with highlights below:

Hour 1:

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Frank McGee (NBC News – Talking about Nuclear Power Plants): “If the emergency cooling system failed, if there were a meltdown, some scientists think an area half the size of Pennsylvania might be contaminated, 100,000 people might die.”

Nuclear Power Plant Spokesperson: “There is no industry the world has ever known that has such safety features built into it. And there is no activity, no industry, no technology that has ever been developed that has such stringent rules for operation.”

Public Safety advocate: “There’s a large majority of the reactor experts that the AEC (Atomic Energy Commission) relies on who have the most serious doubts about these safety assurances. We have hundreds of documents that have been suppressed by the AEC whose source was the safety community and these demonstrate very clearly that the controversy over the AEC’s claims is very deep and very serious.”

Bear in mind that six years later we had that episode at Three Mile Island - the Pennsylvania reference by McGee is purely ironic>

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Starting with the tragic news of the explosion and fire aboard the USS Bennington, due to a hydraulic spark igniting explosive fuel, with the result of 102 crewmen dead.

The Secretary of Commerce admitted "we're in a Recession" with the disclosure of 16 more cities added to the list of 123 major cities with substantial unemployment. The figures come in at well above 5 million unemployed, although the government claimed its figures to be around 4 million. The numbers didn't take into account the unemployed whose benefits had run out in recent weeks.

Another harbinger of things to come - General James van Fleet was reported to have said he didn't think U.S. ground forces were needed in South East Asia. That sending military aid would be enough. This came hot on the heels of Secretary of State Dulles, joining a growing list of officials predicting U.S. involvement in a shooting war in Indo-China (i.e. Vietnam) was imminent.

There was a report on a preview of the upcoming 1955 cars, with a lot more V-8 engines available as standard equipment. The irony was an accompanying report that the major Oil companies were purposely keeping gas prices up by making claims that extra additives for improving performance of these V-8 engines was a way of jacking up gas prices, while marketing claims that these new fuel formulas were better for car performance. A claim not substantiated.

It was also reported that some Army engineers had developed a Solar Panel that, when installed on the roof of a family home, would provide enough heat and electricity to fuel the average house completely from the sun. In 1954, no less.

From Capitol Hill - much anticipated wrangling over President Eisenhower's Farm Bill. An FCC Commissioner, favored by Sen. McCarthy was re-appointed by President Eisenhower and the Army-McCarthy Hearings were droning on, with more noise than progress.

And that's what happened on this June 4, 1954 as reported by Frank Edwards And The News.

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(Acknowledging coffee as a food group)

In 1974 the argument was whether or not to call it a Recession or a Depression, but without any doubt we had one.

The economic woes of the 1970s extended well into the 1980's, with fits and starts and forays into inflation and deflation and stagflation - a veritable plethora of 'flations confronting the country for the better part of a decade. President Ford initiated the somewhat feeble Whip Inflation Now as gas prices went spiraling up, home values came cascading down and unemployment skyrocketed. Sound familiar?

There was a lot of analysis to be had - one was a panel discussion broadcast by NBC Radio in 1974 and later edited into a one hour documentary called "The Wayward Economy" as part of their Second Sunday series. The panel consisted of various economic "experts" (with heavy emphasis on the Chicago School of Economics) at the time; Pierre Renfret, Peter G. Peterson, Ralph Nader (during his relevancy period), Yale Brozen and Tilford Gaines.

This documentary was aired on September 17, 1974.