d. reflect on the psychological and spiritual dimensions of the economic crisis
In July 1979, as inflation soared and another OPEC price increase plunged the United States into a second energy crisis, Carter retreated to Camp David to reflect on the nation's problems. Rather than consulting with economists or geologists to devise a new energy policy, the president invited some 130 clergy, community leaders, academics, businesspeople, and others to help him reflect on the psychological and spiritual dimensions of the economic crisis. Speaking on national television after this retreat, Carter outlined a series of energy initiatives. More memorably, however, he insisted that the United States was facing a "crisis of confidence." As Carter saw it, Americans no longer believed they could contribute positively to their own government and no longer looked optimistically to the future. They had also become distracted by materialistic desires. "Owning things and consuming things," he proclaimed, sounding like a preacher, "does not satisfy our longing for meaning.”