In early 1966 the U.S. economy was entering the sixth year of continuous economic expansion. The unemployment rate was at 4 per cent, a level believed almost unattainable two or three years earlier, capacity utilization was close to 90 per cent, and firms were faced with an exceptionally large backlog of orders. The economy had not only reached a state of full employment, but there was every indication that the “boom” would continue. To many, it appeared that the “New Economics” had finally removed the danger of recession or economic slowdown.