The Ford administration printed buttons exhorting Americans to “Whip Inflation Now.”.

Over the years, American presidents have tried, and mostly floundered, in their efforts to quell the economic and political menace of consumer inflation.

Confronting a spike in gasoline and other consumer prices that’s bedeviling American households, Biden on Tuesday ordered the release of 50 million barrels of oil from the U.S strategic petroleum reserve.

It was just the latest step Biden has taken to show he is doing everything he can to combat inflation as gasoline and food prices, in particular, have imposed a growing burden on American households.

It’s hard to escape the impact of a spike in inflation on your daily life, whether it’s buying milk or buying gas.’’.

The average price of regular gasoline has shot up to $3.40 a gallon from $2.11 a year ago, according to AAA.

Compounding the pain and heightening the pressure on Biden, inflation has been outpacing Americans’ income?

WHAT’S BEHIND THE PRICE SPIKE.

As costs rose, many businesses found that they could pass the burden along to consumers in the form of higher prices.

Economists are divided over how long the inflation spike will last?

President Lyndon Johnson tried to persuade companies to forgo price increases and labor unions to limit wage demands — a practice known as “jawboning.” When Bethlehem Steel raised steel prices in 1965, Johnson criticized its executives as unpatriotic, and they backed down, according to Robert Samuelson’s book, “The Great Inflation and Its Aftermath.” When egg prices rose in 1966, Johnson ordered America’s surgeon general to highlight the health hazards of cholesterol in eggs, with the intent of lowering egg sales and therefore prices.

Nixon imposed wage and price controls in 1971 and 1973, which briefly stifled inflation, only to see prices soar once the controls were lifted?

Last week, Biden sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission asking the FTC chair to consider investigating whether higher gasoline prices were the result of “illegal conduct.” The White House is also stepping up anti-trust enforcement of the meatpacking industry, seeking to increase competition and drive down meat prices.

The 50 million barrels that Biden promised to release will likely be sold slowly, at a rate of about 1 million barrels per day, meaning that the new influx of oil could last about two months.