Reaganomics

Reagan gives a televised address from the Oval Office, outlining his plan for tax reductions in July 1981.

Reaganomics (/rɡəˈnɒmɪks/; a portmanteau of Reagan and economics attributed to Paul Harvey),[1] or Reaganism, were the neoliberal[2][3][4] economic policies promoted by U.S. President Ronald Reagan during the 1980s. These policies are characterized as supply-side economics, trickle-down economics, or "voodoo economics" by opponents,[5][6] including some Republicans, while Reagan and his advocates preferred to call it free-market economics.

The pillars of Reagan's economic policy included increasing defense spending, balancing the federal budget and slowing the growth of government spending, reducing the federal income tax and capital gains tax, reducing government regulation, and tightening the money supply in order to reduce inflation.[7]

The results of Reaganomics are still debated. Supporters point to the end of stagflation, stronger GDP growth, and an entrepreneurial revolution in the decades that followed.[8][9] Critics point to the widening income gap, what they described as an atmosphere of greed, reduced economic mobility, declining real median wages, and the national debt tripling in eight years which ultimately reversed the post-World War II trend of a shrinking national debt as percentage of GDP.[10][11]

  1. ^ Holley, Joe (March 1, 2009). "Broadcaster Delivered 'The Rest of the Story'". The Washington Post. Retrieved March 1, 2009.
  2. ^ Springer, Simon; Birch, Kean; MacLeavy, Julie, eds. (2016). The Handbook of Neoliberalism. Routledge. pp. 3, 65, 144. ISBN 978-1138844001.
  3. ^ Gerstle, Gary (2022). The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order: America and the World in the Free Market Era. Oxford University Press. pp. 121–128. ISBN 978-0197519646.
  4. ^ Bartel, Fritz (2022). The Triumph of Broken Promises: The End of the Cold War and the Rise of Neoliberalism. Harvard University Press. pp. 18–19. ISBN 9780674976788.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Roubini-1997 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Voodoo_economics-2004 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Niskanen, William A. (1992). "Reaganomics". In David R. Henderson (ed.). Concise Encyclopedia of Economics (1st ed.). Library of Economics and Liberty. OCLC 317650570, 50016270, 163149563
  8. ^ "Reagan's Economic Legacy". Bloomberg Businessweek. June 21, 2004. Retrieved July 2, 2018.
  9. ^ Dinesh D'Souza (1997). Ronald Reagan: How an Ordinary Man Became an Extraordinary Leader. Touchstone. pp. 124–125. ISBN 0-684-84823-6.
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference U.S. Debt was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ Paul Krugman (2007). The Conscience of a Liberal. W.W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-06069-0.