"The demoralization process in the USA is basically completed already, for the last 25 years, because demoralization now reaches such areas, where previously not even commander Andropov and even all his experts would even dream of such tremendous success...Most of it is done by Americans to Americans, thanks to lack of moral standards..." Sorry dude, it had nothing to do with Soviet propaganda. We're Americans, and we lost ourselves in the 1980s...not because, as you say, your evil plan worked in the NINETEEN SIXTIES AND SEVENTIES! ROFLMAO!
The 80s were a great decade. Our country was going downhill after the gas crisis and Jimmy Carter. We started our revival after we got rid of Carter. (See his crisis in confidence speech.) We won a big hockey game at lake placid. Volker and Reagan got control of inflation and then interest rates could come down. Reagan Cut taxes and we had a 20 year boom or more in the economy.
Exactly.... Thanks... First Volker and the FED had to get control of inflation.. Then Reagans tax cuts created the great decades long boom.. Things were better in the 80s. We had much better leadership in the US. https://www.stlouisfed.org/publicat...andling-of-the-great-inflation-taught-us-much How bad was the period of the Great Inflation? The inflation rate, a mere 1 percent in 1965, hit 14 percent by 1980. Unemployment trended up from a low of 3.5 percent (annual average) in 1969 to 9.7 percent in 1982. The stock market was in the dumps. Oil prices jumped off the charts. Presidents Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter became desperate enough to tinker with price controls, the results being disastrous. Volcker, in office only two months, took the radical step of switching Fed policy from targeting interest rates to targeting the money supply. The days of "easy credit" turned into the days of "very expensive credit." The prime lending rate exceeded 21 percent. Unemployment reached double digits in some months. The dollar depreciated significantly in world foreign exchange markets. Volcker's tough medicine led to not one, but two, recessions before prices finally stabilized. We've learned a lot from that period. For starters, ideas matter. Bad economic advice, much of it from economists, contributed greatly to policy mistakes in the pre-Volcker days. Keynesian economics had been in vogue by then for decades. This school argued that the government could tax and spend its way to full employment. Inflation was acceptable if it put more people to work. Thankfully, such thinking has been discredited today, although our economic models still need improvement. The Fed also learned that to be effective, it must have the confidence of the markets and the public. During the 1960s and early 1970s, various Fed chairmen made rumblings about fighting inflation, but they always backed down when the complaints about the resulting higher cost of credit grew loud. Fed Chairman William McChesney Martin, for example, was no match for President Lyndon Johnson, who depended on cheap credit to finance the Vietnam War and his Great Society. Because the markets observed the Fed's lack of fortitude, they had no expectations that the Fed would conquer inflation. It is extremely costly to bring inflation down if inflation expectations don't come down. Not until Volcker showed that the Fed could take the heat did the markets believe that the Fed was serious this time. Another lesson from the Great Inflation is that the Fed can only achieve its goal of maximum sustainable employment if it is successful in achieving its goal of price stability. The idea that we can let down our guard on inflation to increase employment is unwise in the long term because higher inflation eventually destroys rather than creates jobs. We've also learned our lesson to speak up. In the 1960s and 1970s, not everyone in the Fed System believed that an inflation/employment tradeoff would work. But these people didn't forcefully vocalize their worries. Everyone connected to the Fed today must be vigilant in ensuring that all sides of a debate are given a forum. I think we do a good job at airing debates today, but I believe the public should also be privy to this communication. If we are transparent in all that we do, we will have the public's support when tough medicine is needed again. Last, we learned that we need strong leaders. Paul Volcker was vilified for years because of the steps he had to take to break the back of inflation. "Wanted" posters targeted him for "killing" so many small businesses. Yet he remained resolute, doing what he knew was best for the country in the long term. We are also fortunate that President Ronald Reagan supported Volcker and the cause of price stability. Let's hope we always have such strong leaders at the helm.
Like a reliable republican, in addition to his tax cuts Reagan also juiced the economy with massive, job-creating spending. So the deficit more than doubled, and the debt tripled. He made America a debtor nation (to China, mainly) for the first time in its history.