Dear Mr. Kimball,

Jimmy Carter was dealt a bad hand. The severe economic crisis he walked into was not of his doing. Remember Jerry Ford’s WIN buttons? The proximate cause of the severe inflation that he inherited was Nixon’s closing of the gold window. This was a massive devaluation of the dollar. Of course, it was a forced move because our putative allies in Europe were raiding our treasury for $35/oz. gold. This was an abrogation of the 1948 Bretton Woods agreement.

So, Jimmy Carter was unjustly blamed for the economic crisis. Having said that, he still managed to be especially feckless in every other aspect of his presidency.

Regards,
Roy