It's amazing that the media has intentionally done a "media black-out" of the 1981-1982 recession that Ronald Reagan defeated without engaging BIG GOVERNMENT spending/programs.
We always hear about the Great Depression. Why? Because it involved a recovery that involved excessive government spending and the creation of new bureaucracies.
The "politicized" media won't ever compare the successful policies of Reagan to that of Obama.
Read:
Stimulus 101: Obama Vs. Reagan:
Stimulus 101: Obama Vs. Reagan - The Philadelphia Bulletin Archives
The recession that Reagan faced was no nearly so bad as the one that Bush II was, and, now, Obama is facing.
Things have gotten much much worse since Reagan's time.
The FED ended the stagflation that Reagan faced by increasing the prime rate until inflation was crushed.
That then set the stage for the recovery that naturally followed.
OBVIOUSLY that was not a solution available to Bush II or Obama.
The problems facing us now are not the same kind of economic problems that we faced in 1980.
For example Reagan wasn't dealing with 50 trillion dollars worth of dereivative overhang.
For example, we weren't nearly so deindustrialized then as we are now.
For example, our balance of trade wasn't nearly so fucked up as it is now.
For example, he was facing inflation, we are facing DEflation.
For example the percentage of energy we imported then is nearly so high as it is now.
For example, the difference between incomes of the very rich wasn't nearly so different than the average Americans then.
For example the ratio of nation debt V GNP wasn't nearly so vast as it is now.
We've been applying the Reagan solution so long, now, that the Reagan solution (tax cuts to the rich and increasing national debt) has BECOME the problem.
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