After the Party

Since the depths of the Volcker-Reagan recession of the early 1980s, the U.S. economy has followed a course of economic expansion that has heartened supporters of the Reagan administration and put its critics on the defensive. In terms of the broad macroeconomic indicators that loom large in national elections—e.g., unemployment, inflation, output growth—U.S. economic performance since the end of 1982 has looked quite good, especially in comparison with that of the Western European economies. The fact is that a majority of Americans are now economically better off than they were six years ago.

Yet, aside from a few hardy Reaganauts, there is scarcely an economic observer who has watched the developments of the past several yea...