Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Reagan’s Boom

The United States has been blessed with virtually uninterrupted prosperity for 25 years.

Over the past 100 quarters beginning in 1982, only five of them have been negative. Five. That means American workers and their families have been in prosperity 95 percent of the time.

It wasn’t always so good. As my friend Brian Wesbury noted on last night’s show, between 1969 and 1982, the US economy slogged through recession 33 percent of the time.

The credit for this remarkable economic transformation belongs to Ronald Reagan.

It was his sound economic vision and leadership that struck the match underneath this roaring American economy. It was his pro-growth policies of slashing taxes, deregulating, disinflation, and all the rest of it, that produced our nearly three decade long track record of success.

Since then, our strong, resilient, capitalist economy has been charging full steam ahead, one president after another. And for the most part, Reagan’s successors have been good stewards of their bounty.

But the real credit belongs to Reagan.