General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: This, my friends, is far too typical for my generation. [View all]Ace Acme
(1,464 posts)on his economic programs (even though the recession of 1982 was brutal) because, by God, he did actually whip inflation.
Inflation had really messed up the Carter years. There was no point in saving money, so unless you were going to buy a whole lot of stuff or spend your paychecks on cocaine, there was no point in making any money or any plans.
So Reagan seemed to know what he was doing, and that lent an undeserved and very damaging credibility to the voodoo economics that he instituted 30 years ago and which ideas are still considered conventional wisdom today.
And I can't help wondering if the Fed had the power to keep inflation burning as it did under Ford and then Carter and then to flip a switch and turn it off under Reagan--and none of us were sophisticated enough then to know it. (Is there a tinfoil smiley?)