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During the mid to late 1960's, the Johnson Administration tried to deal with the mounting inflationary pressures by direct governmental influence. Wage-price guideposts were set up and the power of the presidency was used to coerce big businesses and labor into going along with these guideposts. This general approach came to be known as "jawboning"- an unofficial but usually quite effective technique of arm-twisting to prevent labor and businesses from getting big wage or price increases.
The term has been used more recently in other contexts. During the 2000 U.S. Presidential Election, George W. Bush criticized outgoing president Bill Clinton for not attempting to lower oil prices by "jawboning OPEC" to increase supply.
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