Carterphobia replaced supply and demand as the most important factor determining the prices of goods last week. Fearing that the President-elect intends to impose wage-price guidelines after his Jan. 20 inauguration, several big companies raised prices—while the raising seemed good—on a broad range of basic materials that go into consumer goods from refrigerators to shirts. U.S. Steel, Bethlehem and Republic, three of the largest producers, joined six other companies who earlier had imposed a 6% increase on sheet and strip steel, used in automobiles and appliances. Alcoa and Reynolds followed with rises of as much as 11% on aluminum sheet...
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