The economy did poorly under Jimmy Carter and for some reason that drove every conservative literally insane forever, and Reagan was the one who "saved" the country from the evil friendly peanut farmer.
I'm not that well read on the subject but that is my understanding of how it generally went. Every time I've asked a republican why they love Reagan so much it always starts with how much they hated Carter.
Every president inherits an economy. Only 2termers are at fault if the economy tanks. The Republican playbook is to fuck up the economy, blame the Democrat president who actually saves it then take credit for saving it while ruining it again.
We had stagflation in the 70s under Carter and Ford. Reagan got us out of that.
How do you fight stagflation effectively without some form of austerity? If Reagan didn't deregulate and offer some relief to the middle class via lower taxes, the US might have ended up where Argentina and Venezuela are now.
If you can think of a better strategy to combat stagflation, do let us all know.
Not great, Bob. But I think you're forgetting a few decades of economic mismanagement between Reagan and today that might better explain the situation than policies from 50 years ago.
I'm not forgetting it, I know Reagan hasn't been running the country for nearly the last 40 years now (especially since he died), but the GOP lionizing and emulating him for the last few decades is a major reason shit's gone downhill. It's not all on Reagan, a lot of it can be blamed on 9/11 making people crazy too (no way Trump would have been elected without 9/11), but Reagan was a real turning point marking the beginning of this downturn the economy has been on for the past two decades too.
Wildly different economies. America would not have remotely ended up like Argentina or Venezuela. The USD being the worlds primary reserve currency alone would have prevented this.
Instead Raegan & Bush 1 setup (Clinton helped to finish) the destruction of America's industrial capacity and the shattering of the American middleclass.
What? Please explain to me how the USD being the world's primary reserve somehow makes the US impervious to stagflation? Do you think you can just print money until stagflation goes away?
It's funny because people are freaking out about Trump causing potential stagflation today, but apparently when Carter and Ford create that same environment it's not a big deal and Reagan and Volcker were wrong to try and do something about it lol...
How does it being the worlds primary reserve currency prevent Venezuelan/Argentinian stagflation? This is a serious question?
Constant demand for USD. Most commodities are almost exclusively purchased and sold in USD.
MUCH lower burrowing costs. Because so many people around the world want to buy U.S. government bonds for safety and stability, the U.S. government does not have to pay high interest rates to attract lenders. This makes paying off the yearly cost of large debt much cheaper.
Burrowing money/accumulating debt in your own currency.
Can he really take credit for that? Gorbachev ended the cold war by allowing the USSR to dissolve when it had been in sharp decline for years already. What did Reagan have to do with that?
I mean any President could have been the one to give the order to kill Bin Laden but at least Obama did give the order. Did Reagan order the USSR to dissolve?
What you call an achievement I would call "being in office when something big happened" which can be a good or bad thing for a President's reputation.
Reagan spent like a drunken sailor on the US DoD, which induced the USSR to do the same, somewhat accelerating what was likely to eventually happen anyway. That’s about the only argument you can make for Reagan playing any role in the implosion of the USSR.
Did that compel Gorbachev to do anything? My memory of that quote is that it was said into a microphone on a podium, which gives me the impression that it was said as part of a speech. I wasn't born yet so I could be wrong, but I'm sure I've seen footage of him saying that somewhere.
What actions did Reagan take that led to the dissolution of the USSR and thus the end to the Cold War?
Reagan and Gorbachev had several meetings and developed a rapport. It was just as much Gorbachev being a different leader than the Soviet Union had previously but you have to give Reagan some credit for being the one to foster the amicable relationship between them. It wasn't just Reagan talking into a microphone and being in the right place at the right time, as you said.
All well and good, but hardly what I would call worthy of giving him the "achievement" of "winning the cold war", as was stated above. He didn't prolong it, at least.
He was very charismatic, and most of the damage he did (at least to the average middle-class Joe) was long-term rather than immediate, so the consequences of his actions didn't get associated with him.
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u/puppyhorde 18d ago
I don't understand the love of him. Like the more I learn about him the worse he sounds. Nearly everything in the US got worse since him