Some Truth About Our Economy

Ronald Reagan’s victory in 1980 was in part the result of Jimmy Carter’s failure to respond to high unemployment and inflation. Carter’s austerity program (in 1979, when millions of people were without work, Carter proposed a $25 billion cut in government spending) looked pale beside Republican promises to restore economic growth, stop inflation without recession, and make everyone better off.

By the early 1980s Republican ideas were a disaster. A tight-money policy r...