Former US President Jimmy Carter dies at 100

Jimmy Carter, the US President between 1977 and 1981, has passed away at the age of 100.

His single-term presidency, during a period of high inflation and economic uncertainty, served as the launching pad for a number of institutions, initiatives and ideas that would go on to have an impact far outlasting his time in the Oval Office.

A peanut farmer from the Southern state of Georgia, Mr Carter won the popular vote in the 1976 election by portraying himself as a Washington outsider who would bring an honest and compassionate approach to the United States’ administration, untainted by the political machinations that led to the Watergate scandal just two years prior.

President Carter focused a lot of his efforts to tackling ‘stagflation’ (high inflation coupled with stagnant economic growth and high unemployment). Inflation worsened during his presidency, peaking at over 13 per cent in 1980, driven by oil shocks and rising energy costs.

Still reeling from the 1973 oil crisis, in 1979 oil production fell once again in the wake of the Iranian revolution, leading the price per barrel to more than double.

The US administration prioritised energy independence and alternative energy sources, building out the country’s nuclear energy capacity and promoting solar and wind energy research.

However, while these efforts laid the groundwork for long-term benefits, they faced criticism for being inadequate in the face of immediate energy price shocks.

His pick to chair the Federal Reserve, Paul Volcker, would have a more direct impact on prices by dramatically raising interest rates between 1980 and 1982, a period still known as the ‘Volcker Shock’.

Mr Volcker effectively got inflation under control by engineering two brief but significant recessions by raising interest rates to almost 20 per cent.

While the figure is practically unthinkable nowadays, it was the same doctrine that led the Fed’s – as well as the ECB’s – response to the inflation seen over the last couple of years, with the Volcker Doctrine still the world’s predominant strategy to beat inflation.

Former US President Jimmy Carter may not have stayed long in the White House, but the strategies he promoted in tackling energy production and inflation remain with us today.