The correct answer is Nixon imposed wages and price controls to stop inflation. Annual inflation was around nine percent.
Some critics said that those economic measures were part of a strategy from the White House to cover the investigation of the Watergate scandal.
On June 13, 1973, President Nixon ordered to freeze on all retail prices for 60 days.
Despite the voluntary controls of his Phase 3 program, he had to establish Phase 4, with tighter control of prices.
In other measures, Nixon asked Congress to give new authority for the reduction of tariffs, approval for the pipeline in Alaska, authority to dispose of materials in the strategic reserve, and farm legislation to increase production.