Next up: Reaganomics 2.0
after the Biden recession
Donald Devine, once a Reagan appointee, writes in The American Spectator to warn us — and presumably our Deep State overlords as well — that to get out of Stagflation Part Two we are going to have to rerun Reaganomics.
Remember, back in the day, President Carter appointed G. William Miller as Fed Chairman? La Wik says that Carter & Co. were pissed off by criticism from Nixon Fed Chair Arthur Burns. And I remember that it was Walter Mondale’s wife Joan that came up with G. William Miller. G. William Miller was soft on inflation.
But no worries. After G. William Miller helped give us Carter Stagflation, Carter moved him to the Treasury and nominated Paul Volcker as Fed Chairman.
Ronald Reagan was famously characterized by liberal éminence grise Clark Clifford as an “amiable dunce.” I guess that Reagan didn’t play well on the Georgetown dinner circuit. But, amiable or not, Reagan implemented a Four Part economic plan, according to Devine.
The Reagan plan consisted of four parts: “(1) substantial reduction in the growth of federal expenditures, (2) significantly reduced federal tax rates, (3) prudent relief of federal regulatory burdens, and (4) a monetary policy on the part of the independent Federal Reserve System consistent with those policies.”
Shall we shorten that to make it Real Simple for Sen. Iselin & Co.?
Cut spending
Cut tax rates
Cut regulation
Stop printing money
Below the article at American Spectator there is a comment from a lefty troll:
Reagan was perhaps the worst President that we ever had, supply side economics, deregulation and the Laffer curve have been proven to be complete failures.
He forgot to add “trickle-down economics.”
The sad thing is that the troll is not alone. Ever since the 1980s our media friends have been pushing the narrative that trickle-down economics was a fraud that benefited the rich at the expense of the poor. And millions have believed it.
I reckon that unless you are a person that consciously goes out and reads non-mainstream media, “trickle-down” is the narrative you will have absorbed. The so-called Reagan Miracle was a mirage. Really, it was the beginning of the end.
Look I get it. In politics you have to lie to your supporters to keep them energized and get them out to vote. But the problem about political lies is that pretty soon you start believing your own lies. At the very least, you don’t learn any lessons from watching the other guys in power.
In 1933, FDR implemented the print-money, big spending agenda and the US didn’t really recover from the 1929 Crash until the New Dealers stopped beating up big business and sending them lots of lolly to crank up for World War II.
In 2009, Obama implemented a big-spending, payoff the teachers and other Dem supporters, zero-interest rate program. And the economy didn’t really recover until Trump in 2017.
In 2021, after the COVID spendaloosa and money-printer-go-brrrr, Biden implemented a big-spending, climate change, pay off the Dem supporters program. And now we are looking an a likely recession in a presidential election year.
Looking a the three Dem stimulus programs above, I would say that our Democratic friends have learned nothing and forgotten nothing since 1933.
Put it this way. I would say that Rule One is: Don’t have a recession in a presidential election year. But how do you do that?
Well, I would say that it would mean coming into office and really limiting the stuff you hand out to your supporters. If inflation is brewing then you need to get the Fed into “fight inflation” mode right now, so that by the time the next presidential election rolls around the recession is over and you can turn on the spigots and let the good times roll for reelection.
And if the Fed has just increased the M2 money supply by 20 percent to fight COVID then I would say that it’s Houston We Have a Problem time.
Back in 1977, Jimmy Carter increased spending and had G. William Miller to provide cheap money. The result was that he had to put the brakes on in 2019 just before reelection.
In 1989, Bush I allowed a recession and was coming out of it pretty well in 1992. But Bill Clinton managed to persuade the voters that it was “the worst economy in the last 50 years.”
In 2017 Donald Trump cut taxes and set off a boom. But by 2019 the Fed was starting to fight inflation, and Trump jawboned the Fed into cutting interest rates. No problem, because the COVID panic upset the apple cart and the Dems managed to squeak Biden in.
In 2021 Joe Biden continued the money printing of 2020, and doubled down on the big spending of the COVID response. And he’s pushing climate change spending that doesn’t grow the economy. Now, with only a year to the 2024 presidential primary season, the interest rate curve is inverted and recession flags are flying.
So I’d say that we need two rules:
Rule One: No recession in a presidential election year
Rule Two: Don’t bust the bank with handouts to your supporters
I think that two rules are enough. I don’t want to overtax our national politicians with anything too complicated.