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| Humanity needs much more than a trickle of the money supply. |
nouncer. He was neither a scholar nor a decorated combat veteran. In fact, he only
graduated with a C average in 1932, from Eureka College. He majored in Sociolo-
gy and Economics, beginning in 1928. This means that he began his college studies
during the Roaring 20's, when it looked as if prosperity has going to continue into the
1930's. Then came the Great Depression, when no one was wise enough to know
that it was en route to America. Thus, Reagan studies during the years when no one
had the answer to the cause of America's worst economic crisis.
Accounting courses during that era was little more than bookkeeping classs, whereas
during the Space Age, ratios, the delineation of costs, formulas, marginal utility curves
comprised accounting. Incidentally, if you majored in Econ, you were required to pass
a couple accounting courses. In as much, America and California elected to executive
posts a man who had the economic prowess of a bookkeeper ... literally.
The General Scorecard on Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan is the president who: I] tripled the national debt, II] saw the national
unemployment rate rocket to 10.8% after having signed the first of two major income
tax rate decreases for the wealthiest Americans, III] was granted 18 national debt ceil-
ing increases by the US Congress, IV] signed into law various types of tax increases,
including an elimination of a major COBRA tax deduction. V] froze the minimum
wage throughout his entire presidency.
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VI} Reagan caused the creation of the two-income family and the lonely phenomenon
of the latch key kid, due to the financial burden that Reagan let be imposed upon any-
one not counted among the rich. VII] Plus, he funneled weapons to Iran & Nicaragua,
VIII} set the Savings & Loan Crisis into motion by eliminating a major tax deduction
upon which real estate investors depended, IX] opened the door to the Maoist sweat-
shop dictatorship in 1986, only for it, to end up owning over a trillion dollars worth of
U.S. Treasury bonds by the Year 2011.
X] In addition, Reagan signed into law the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act
of 1982 —TEFRA—the largest tax increase in the history of the United States, when
combined with 1984 legislation, which was designed to raise $214.1 billion through-
out a 5 year period, reminiscent, in a way, of one of Stalin's Five Year Plans.
XI] Year prior, Reagan signed into California law (as governor) the largest tax increase
in the history of any American state, up to that time. XII] As president, Reagan froze
the minimum wage throughout his entire presidency.
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XIII] Reagan, in the spirit of his generation's racism, vetoed the Comprehensive Anti-
Apartheid Act, XIV] In the spirit of Frick, Carnegie, and the union busters of America,
he let the Pittsburgh steel industry go into nonexistence, despite the fact that it was the
Steel Capitol of the World the day Reagan took office. XV] Reagan simultaneously in-
creased the size of the federal government, even though he promised to reduce it, in ele-
vating the number of legislative and executive branch federal employees from 2,860,000
in 1981 to 3,113,000 in 1988. XVI] Under Ronald Reagan, there actually was a decline
in government revenue as a ratio of national income, compared to Jimmy Carter's final
year in office.
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XVII] One of the most poignant hypocrisies of Reagan was that he declined to defend
the right of Christians to not be required to desecrate their time-honored Sabbath with
performing unnecessary work under penalty of being fired or not hired, despite the fact
that Reagan presented to the Christian world as the pope of the "Moral Majority."
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XVIII] In 1985, for the first time since 1914, the United States became a debtor na-
tion. In fact, it became the top debtor nation in the world, despite the fact that, when
Reagan enter office in 1981, the United States was the top creditor nation on earth.
XIX] Vetoed the Fairness in Broadcasting Act.
http://www.nytimes.com/1985/09/17/business/us-turns-into-debtor-nation.html
http://articles.latimes.com/1986-06-24/news/mn-21190_1_foreign-investments
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1291&dat=19860319&id=VwtUAAAAIBAJ&sjid=kowDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6642,6797126
XIX] Under Reagan, from 1981 to 1983, the number of Americans living below the
poverty line went from 31,822,000 to 35,303,000. As Reagan left office, there would
be more people living below the poverty line in America than when he entered office.
However, he was hailed as having taken millions out of poverty, when the fact is that
he was the one who originally lodged them there, after his 1981 income tax cut to the
rich ... and the income tax deduct was to the rich only.
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0104525.html
XX] Under Reagan, on October 19, 1987, the Stock Markets in America and else-
where crashed, having lost 22.6% of its value in one day. It was called Black Mon-
day at the time. The event was officially identified as the Stock Market Crash, by
the Federal Reserve Board and it is involved both the Dow and the S&P 500 index,
as well as the futures market and options market.
This worldwide historic event proves that the right wing conservative Republicans
lied each time in claiming that there was a recovery under Reagan. Keep in mind
that there was also a Savings & Loan Crisis which began under Reagan's watch.
Black Monday: 25th anniversary of 1987 stock market crash; ABCNews, 2012
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/national_world&id=8852839
Reagan's Leadership, Too, Was Questioned After 1987 Stock Market Drop;
NPR News, 2011
http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2011/08/09/139237597/reagans-leadership-too-was-questioned-after-1987-market-drop
A Brief History of the 1987 Stock Market Crash with a Discussion of the Federal
Reserve Response; issued by the Federal Reserve Board, 2006
http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/feds/2007/200713/200713pap.pdf
Concerning what was called the Reagan Recovery, the University of Virginia's Miller
Center reported how it was dispersed. The rise in personal income did NOT benefit
Americans equally. The report was that the income of the rich rose 9%, the income
of the middle class rose only 1%, and the income of African Americans decreased
8% ... so said the Miller Ctr of the Univ of VA. The Reagan Recovery was merely
the phenomenon of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer.
One study revealed that while annual income for American families grew
by 3.5 percent during Reagan's first term, middle-class families saw only
a 1-percent gain, compared to affluent Americans (those in the top quin-
tile of the income bracket) who saw their incomes rise by 9 percent.
In contrast, American families with incomes in the bottom quintile saw
their average incomes decline by 8 percent; black families and house-
holds headed by women were particularly hard hit by declining incomes.
Finally, child poverty increased to levels exceeding those of the mid-1960s.
Miller Center, Univ of Virginia, Charlottesville.
The list of grievances go on and on, including the fact that 138 members of Reagan's
administration were officially investigated, some of whom were indicted, some of
whom were convicted, included those who were pardoned. In fact, in having placed
James Watts as the head of the Department of the Interior, Reagan assigned a fox to
guard a chicken coup.
Reagan's Economic Priority
Reagan's economic priority was that of erasing Taxflation. This is the phenomenon
of inflation eventually resulting in a higher salary, and therefore, a higher income
bracket which erases some of the increased income through tax liability. It's also
referred to a 'tax creep,' as in creeping up the tax brackets. Of course, Reagan's
folly was in disregarding tax deductions, tax credits, and tax incentives which
can erase a person's income tax liability in part or whole.
None the less, in order to prevent taxflation, Reagan lobbied Congress to limit the
income tax brackets to two of them ... one at 28% and one at 15%. The next prior-
ity was that of decreasing inflation which occurred through low interest rates. The
book-keeping on the inflation rate was changed by changing the computation of the
Consumer Price Index. This change made the inflation look like it was steadily
dropping at an impressive rate. The former way of computing the CPI made in-
flation rates look erratic. The former way counted home rental prices, but not
home mortgaging, being that a mortgage is a fixed contract that doesn't change
every quarter.
None the less, under Reagan, the price of gasoline decreased throughout his entire
presidency, when measuring year-by-year and not month-by-month. Of course, they
price was previously far to high and OPEC was retaliating against the Ford and Cart-
er administrations, severely. However, even though the price of gasoline fell during
the Reagan years, the purchasing power of the individual American citizen decreased
during the same Reagan years, thereby causing the same effect as inflation.
Plus, Reagan agreed to items in congressional bills that are considered as
anathema by today's Republican propagandists
This part of Reagan's scorecard is significant in that it shows today's right wing con-
servative Republican mouthpiece to be a complete, and not even partial liar:
To start, in 1975, Democratic senator Russel Long, of Louisiana, succeeded in hav-
ing the Earned Income Tax Credit enacted into law. In was a law fading away, in
terms of impact. Then, Reagan agreed to have it expanded in the 1986 tax reform
bill. Yes, the EITC condemned by the party of greed and sweatshop profiteering
found new life in the Reagan years.
In addition, Reagan signed into law the highest corporate tax increase in American
history. Corporate tax loopholes were closed to the tune of $300 billion 1980 dollars,
while corporate tax liabilities were raised by $120 billion 1980 dollar, for a five year
period. Thus, Reagan saw to the lowered of the tax rates of the individual wealthy.
This means that Reagan lowered his own tax rate. Reagan showed that he didn't
care about America ... only his re-election campaign funds and his own bank ac-
counts. In attacking inflation as he did, he showed that he merely wanted to make
sure that the money he had sitting in financial accounts wouldn't dwindle in value.
Let's do the Apocalypso
If the aforementioned bibliographical references aren't enough for you, the follow-
ing provides firsthand, close-up, expert assessment of Reaganomics, being that it
was written by Reagan's own budget director, David Stockman. David spoke of the
Reagan Reformation as the Deformation. Needless to say, he resigned from the Rea-
gan administration. His main reason was that Reagan was lying to himself, in insist-
ing to adhere to his unfounded Reaganomic beliefs which were deceptively camou-
flaged behind Milton Friedman's Supply Side doctrine. Therefore, Mr. Stockman's
2010 New York Times op-ed (opposing editorial) is titled Four Deformations of the
Apocalypse. The title is a play on the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/01/opinion/01stockman.html?ref=opinion
To fill in the empty spaces that an op-ed, in its short length creates, the following is
1988 article is in order, and it's brought to you by the Ludwig von Mises Institute.
This is important to note, because Rand Paul, the eye doctor who is NOT a scholar
in economics is heralded as a follower of the Austrian School of Economics, as if
he found a new and improved way to deal with an economy. It's that the Austrian
school omits from its books measurements presented as essential elements of stan-
dardized economic science.
The point to mentioning this is that Rand is now presented as a Reaganomics guru
in the name of the Austrian school of economics. Yet, that school sponsored the
full scale condemnation of Ronald Reagan's legacy. Rand Paul's propagandists
state that Rand studied Austrian economics. But where? He was an eye doctor.
So, where were the Austrian Economics course held?
Anyway, the Ludwig von Mises article about Reagan, written at the end of Reagan's
presidency is titled, The Sad Legacy of Ronald Reagan.
http://mises.org/freemarket_detail.aspx?control=488
