EN
Despite successive failures in its application the incomes policy as a tool in the fight with inflation is an object of animated discussion in the USA both among economic theoreticians and in wide social circles. A comparative analysis performed in the article on two different attitudes to the question of J. K. Calbralth and Milton Friedman allows to state that apart from theoretical differences In the discussion on adaptability of the incomes policy of great significance are ideological differences consisting in different approaches to the most important problems of the contemporary capitalism, its prospects and directions of structural transformations. The article consists of three parts. The first part contains a basic set of information including a definition of the incomes policy and discussion of the most typical ways in which its application is theoretically justified. The second part encompasses presentation of the postwar episodes in application of the incomes pollcy; government "guidelines" from the period 1962-1968, Nixon's New Economic Policy as well as "principles" of procedure in the sphere of wages and prices announced by Jimmy Carter in 1978 and being in force till 1980. Finally, in the third part Calbralth's and Friedman's views are confronted which is followed by summing-up of analysis and formulation of conclusion, and here especially conclusions concerning the character of causes accounting for different views on the analyzed problem.